NRA to hire staffs on contract to resolve manpower crunch

Published On: January 23, 2017 01:00 AM NPT By: Sangeet Sangroula | @SangeetJourno

The act allows the CEO of NRA to appoint necessary employees on contract if the government is unable to supply such staffers.

KATHMANDU, Jan 23: As civil servants continued to show reluctance to work for the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), the authority has initiated preparations to hire necessary staffers on a contract basis to resolve the problem.

Chief Executive Officer of NRA Govinda Raj Pokharel on Sunday held discussions with concerned officials on the modality of hiring staffers on a contract basis as provisioned in the “Act Made to Provide for Reconstruction of the Earthquake Affected Structures 2072” as the Ministry of General Administration has not been able to depute necessary staffs to the authority mainly due to the reluctance of civil servants.

The act allows the CEO of NRA to appoint necessary employees on contract if the government is unable to supply such staffers.

Even after more than a year of the establishment of the NRA, the government has not been able to provide sufficient staffers to the authority. And even those officials deputed to the authority have been serving in the authority for brief periods and seeking transfers to other government bodies affecting the daily administrative work of the authority and hampering the overall tasks of the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the authority. Of late, two joint-secretaries Ram Prasad Thapaliya and Kali Prasad Parajuli left the NRA and the vacancies have yet to be filled.

“The authority currently has not even one-third of the required staffers. So, the new CEO has started deliberations on the modality of hiring staffs on contract basis in the authority,” NRA's deputy spokesman Bhishma Raj Bhusal told Republica.

The government had created 208 posts while establishing the authority but as civil servants refused to work for the authority, the government reduced the number of posts to 168. But NRA is manned around 50 staffers.

He said that the NRA has initiated preparations to make guidelines for hiring staff on contract basis. “While hiring staffers on contract, the NRA will give first priority to those falling under the alternative lists of candidates in the results published by the Public Service Commission. Similarly, other details are also being finalized,” he added.