KATHMANDU, Aug 30: Around one and a half months after being appointed Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA), Bhagwati Neupane has taken a bold step. She has simultaneously removed all acting Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) from rural municipalities and municipalities.
According to MoFAGA spokesperson Kali Prasad Parajuli, this is the first time rural municipalities and municipalities have been left without acting Chief Administrative Officers.
He said, “For the first time, rural municipalities and municipalities are without acting Chief Administrative Officers. In the past, it was not possible to remove acting officials in these bodies.”
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On Thursday, the ministry deployed 105 under-secretaries to municipalities and 87 section officers to rural municipalities as CAOs. As per the law, municipalities should have under-secretaries as CAOs, while rural municipalities should have section officers in the same role.
Minister Neupane has appointed officials to municipalities and rural municipalities in line with these legal provisions. “If all employees go to their assigned posts and if mayors and chairpersons allow them to take office, this will be a bold step,” said one ministry official.
In the past, some employees assigned by the ministry would return without reaching their posts, while in other cases, mayors/deputy mayors or chairpersons/vice-chairpersons would refuse to let them take office, forcing them to return midway. This time, the ministry has issued a directive making it mandatory for transferred employees to report to their designated posts.
MoFAGA has also stated that employees sent cannot be turned back and that the respective local levels must allow them to take office. “All employees we have deployed must go to their designated local bodies. No one is allowed to return midway. Local bodies must also ensure they take office,” Parajuli said.
According to him, it was on the direction of Minister Neupane that acting officials were removed from municipalities and rural municipalities. Sources say she had been concerned about this issue from the very beginning. To prepare for this, she instructed the staff of the Personnel Administration Division to carry out the necessary groundwork.
Accordingly, staff from the administration division had been working on this for several days. Previously, in many rural municipalities, the absence of appointed CAOs meant that subbas (non-gazetted first-class officers) handled the responsibility on an acting basis, while in municipalities, section officers served as acting officials. In some cases, even health assistants acted as heads. This had led to irregularities in municipalities and rural municipalities. When Neupane assumed office, 212 local levels were being run by acting CAOs.
However, metropolitan cities and sub-metropolitan cities still have acting Chief Administrative Officers. According to spokesperson Parajuli, the ministry has not yet been able to send joint secretaries, as required by law, to one metropolitan city and nine sub-metropolitan cities. By law, metropolitan and sub-metropolitan cities should have CAOs of joint-secretary rank.
Parajuli added that in Birgunj Metropolitan City and in the sub-metropolitan cities of Dhangadhi, Ghorahi, Tulsipur, Nepalgunj, Dharan, Janakpur, Butwal, Kalaiya, and Itahari, under-secretaries have been appointed as acting officials since joint secretaries have been unwilling to go. Joint secretaries generally prefer not to be posted outside Kathmandu.
