National
Staff crunch paralyses local govts
Six months after the local governments got elected representatives, most of the local federal units have yet to be functional largely in the lack of staff.Six months after the local governments got elected representatives, most of the local federal units have yet to be functional largely in the lack of staff.
This limits the functions of most of the local councils to issuing recommendations for citizenship certificates or passports. Though the local governments have huge responsibilities, a majority of them have not started even planning for development works yet. Among the 6,443 wards under rural municipalities and municipalities across the country, 300 have not government staff while dozens of rural municipalities and municipalities don’t have the executive chief.
Rudra Singh Tamang, spokesperson for the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, said at least 16,100 officials are required immediately to make the local governments functional. However, not even one-third of the required staffers have taken up their jobs.
According to Tamang, absence of account and technical officials is hindering planning for development works and release of budget. “We’ve not been able to take any remarkable step in the lack of staff,” said Karna Singh Saud, the chairperson of a rural municipality in Baitadi. “Development works need technical staff but we don’t have any.”
A study conducted by the ministry shows that 59 staffers are required in each rural municipality and a minimum 200 in a metropolitan city. The Civil Servants Adjustment Act endorsed in October envisages completing staff management within six months. However, the government is yet to approve the regulation which is a must for start the deployment process. “We first need the regulation for implementation of the Act,” Tamang told the Post. The Act sets seniority, permanent address and preference of the officials concerned as the bases for deployment to one of the three tiers of government—local, provincial and federal.
Senior officials will have the first choice of duty station in transfer to vacant posts in the respective governments.