KATHMANDU, April 18: The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA) has left more than 80 employees in the lurch without assigning them any responsibilities.
Employees who are not assigned specific duties visit MoFAGA in the morning to sign in and leave once they complete this task. They don't even have designated workstations in the office and are often forced to stand on the veranda, earning them the title of ‘veranda employees.’
The MoFAGA has placed those employees in a reserve pool. The number fluctuates over time. According to MoFAGA sources, there are currently more than five joint secretaries in this reserve pool because the ministry has only five posts of joint secretaries at present.
Furthermore, while the government-approved position for under secretary is 22, MoFAGA currently has over 24 under secretaries in the reserve pool. In total, more than 80 employees ranging from joint secretaries to officers have been placed in the reserve pool, according to MoFAGA sources.
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Tika Dhakal, under secretary at MoFAGA, said that the overcrowding of employees in the reserve pool has become a major issue. “This problem has now become the biggest disease in MoFAGA. Such a trend tends to demotivate employees by leaving them without any role,” he said. Dhakal himself has been in the reserve pool at MoFAGA for three months without being assigned any job.
The Civil Service Act 2049 states that no employee can be kept without work for more than one month without valid reason. In addition, if the employee is not given any responsibility for more than one month, the departmental head of the office where the employee is working will be punished, states the law. However, this rule is hardly enforced.
Similarly, MoFAGA has proposed to shorten the duration of keeping employees in the reserve pool for transfer-related procedures.
Kamal Bhattarai, joint secretary and spokesperson for the MoFAGA, said that the ministry is currently preparing new guidelines for transfer of employees to enhance efficiency. He mentioned that the draft of the guidelines have already been prepared.
“The responsibility of the MoFAGA includes implementing federalism and managing employees, hence there is a need for new procedures related to employee transfers. Employees in the reserve pool do not receive regular salaries like other employees,” he said.
Moreover, the Ministry of Finance often makes it challenging to pay salaries to such employees when a large number of them are placed in the reserve pool at once, increasing the salary burden on the individual offices.
If employees in positions such as secretaries are given no roles, they are sent to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers. Conversely, those of similar levels as joint secretaries and under secretaries are sent to the MoFAGA which has been deemed a wrong practice.
Another under secretary at MoFAGA recalled that during the tenure of the then secretary Binod Prakash Singh, 127 employees were placed in the additional group. However, on Singh’s initiative, this number was reduced from 127 to 80.
Keeping promoted employees without assigned roles in the reserve pool is considered a form of punishment for high-level officials. While it is the obligation of MoFAGA to maintain such employees in the reserve pool, the practice of keeping them without work is criticized by administration experts.
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