100-day honeymoon

100-day honeymoon : Bureaucracy thumbs down for coalition

Prakash Acharya
Kathmandu, November 30:

The upper echelons of bureaucracy don’t seem to be all that impressed with the Maoist-led government’s handling of the civil administration.
The ruling coalition stands accused of wasting time in routine activities like promotions, appointments, bureaucratic reshuffles, task force formation and preparation of draft policies. Senior bureaucrats point out to a recent government drive — the Civil Service Regulation, which aims to transfer secretaries and employees — that seems to be consuming a lot of time as well.
“The political leadership in the ministry doesn’t have a novel working style. Nor has it demonstrated any vision and skill to usher in a new Nepal. It’s an old wine in an old bottle,” said a government secretary.
Euphoria is fast giving way to frustration.
“Honestly, 100 days aren’t enough for evaluation. But, it’s enough to set the course for action. It seems the government has lost its direction, if some of the recent actions are any pointer,” said Dr Bimal Koirala, former chief secretary.
“Besides, the creation of so many posts for secretaries (double than the earlier regime) without designated offices has been the worst move,” he added.
No wonder, popular disenchantment is on the rise. Inflation, poor law and order situation, poor state mechanism in dispensation of service, irresponsible behaviour of leaders and cadres of the ruling parties, hostility towards industries and random transfer of government servants, especially in Home Ministry, are loaded against the ruling combine. A secretary opined that focus on trivial issues like crackdown on dance bars is symptomatic of the government’s myopic vision.
“The growing disputes within the coalition are a major hindrance to good governance,” said Prof Birendra Mishra, ex-election commissioner.
Mishra’s observation bears out with the Prime Minister’s own assessment recently.
“Uprooting the nexus of anomalies in the state machineries is more difficult than the People’s War. We have felt this deeply within this short span,” the PM had said at a programme last week.
Surya Nath Upadhaya, former Chief Commissioner, Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, however, was all praise for the government.
“All the machineries haven’t been activated yet due to conflict of interests among the coalition allies. But there are positive signals in its initial performance,” he said.