KATHMANDU, Sept 15: On September 7, the day before the Civil Service Day, the Council of Ministers meeting decided to present the Civil Service Bill and the School Education Bill to parliament to give a positive message to the government employees. While the School Education Bill has been registered in parliament, it has not been decided when the Civil Service Bill will be registered.

It has been a week since the Council of Ministers decided to register the Civil Service Bill in parliament. But it is not ready to be registered immediately. However, Federal Affairs and General Administration Minister Anita Devi responded that the Federal Civil Service Bill is ready to be registered in parliament immediately.

She said that some of the points in the bill have to be ‘adjusted’, so some points of the bill are going to be amended. "However, we are presenting the Civil Service Bill to parliament immediately," she said. According to the ministry, it was decided to ‘adjust’ some of the points in the bill when the Federal Civil Service Bill was approved by the Council of Ministers. According to the said decision, some points of the bill are going to be amended, a source at the ministry said.

The Federal Civil Service Bill was initially drafted during the tenure of the then Federal Affairs Minister Amanlal Modi and Federal Affairs Secretary Krishna Hari Pushkar. During Modi and Puskar's tenure, the Civil Service Bill was presented to the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Law, Public Service Commission and Council of Ministers. The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Law agreed to approve this Bill.

But before the Ministry of Federal Affairs registered the Bill at the Ministry, both the Minister and the Secretary were changed in the Ministry of Federal Affairs. Binod Prakash Singh is currently working as the secretary of the ministry. Sources said that the new minister and the new secretary are currently studying the contents of the bill in detail. Minister Anita Devi said, "There is a need to adjust some of the points in the bill.” The then federal affairs minister Modi belonged to the CPN (Maoist Center) while the current minister Devi belongs to the Janamat Party. To strengthen and institutionalize federalism, the main administrative officer and provincial secretary should be subordinate to the provincial government. But the contention revolves around Nepali Congress and CPN-UML saying that the chief administrative officer and the provincial secretary should be at the center to coordinate between the federal, provincial and local levels. These differing viewpoints have stalled the Civil Service Bill's registration in parliament.

In the draft of the Bill, a provision has been made that the Chief Administrative Officer and the Provincial Secretary will work under the federal government for the time being. When the leader of the Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) Rajendra Shrestha was the federal affairs minister, a provision was made that the chief administrative officer and the provincial secretary would be subordinate to the federal government. Nepali Congress and UML leaders objected to this provision. This was one of the main reasons why the Civil Service Bill was not registered in parliament at that time.

According to the law, once the Council of Ministers decides to present the bill in parliament, the relevant ministry should register it in parliament. Therefore, this bill should be registered in parliament by the Ministry of Federal Affairs. If the draft is to be amended again, the amended draft must be passed by the Cabinet again.

The government formed a Facilitation Committee under the coordination of Deputy Prime Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka to reach an agreement on the Federal Civil Service Bill and to facilitate it. After the Facilitation Committee decided, the Bill was presented to the Council of Ministers.

The Federal Civil Service Bill has faced delays since 2017. The initial draft was prepared in 2017. Since then, the draft has been amended several times. The draft has been revised as many times as the change in the minister and the secretary. During the time of the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, the Civil Service Bill was presented to parliament. For a long time, this bill was discussed in the State Affairs Committee. During the time of the then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, the government withdrew the bill from parliament. Since the Federal Civil Service Bill could not be enacted, even now the personnel laws are governed by the Civil Service Act 2049 BS of 31 years ago.

At that time, the country was under a centralized system of governance, but now, although the country has adopted federalism, the administration has been governed by old laws. President Ramchandra Paudel had said that the Federal Civil Service Act has been given top priority in the policies and programs presented to parliament for the current fiscal year. Although it is expected that the bill will be registered in parliament in the current session, confusion still looms large. 

 
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