State Affairs and Good Governance Committee decides to request NA to ensure cooling off in Civil Service Bill

Kathmandu: In response to outcry over the sneaky erasure of two-year cooling off provision from the Federal Civil Service Bill which was passed by the lower house, House of Representatives, by majority last Sunday, the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee held a meeting on Wednesday and decided to request the upper house, National Assembly, to ensure the incorporation of cooling off provision.

The cooling-off provision, as asserted by the Committee, prevents top bureaucrats from securing government appointments within two years of their retirement or resignation. It was, however, dramatically missed, with a surreptitious insertion of a provision that rendered the cooling-off provision to zilch.

Committee Chairman Ramhari Khatiwada informed that the Committee meeting, as per the discussion held on Wednesday, decided to request the National Assembly to work on the Bill, thereby ensuring two years of cooling off. Similarly, the meeting decided to request Speaker Devraj Ghimire to investigate the tampering of the Bill, which the lawmakers argued was against the values and spirit of the Committee.

Earlier, some lawmakers had insisted that the Committee members were univocal on the two-year cooling-off provision, while the Bill was passed otherwise. They also viewed that the Committee Chairman and secretary need to morally own up to this fault, as it was a serious case and against parliamentary values.

Stating that the parliamentary committee is a mini-parliament and it was sheer disgrace to see such a fraud and conspiracy in the law-making, they underlined the urgency of investigation and action against those involved in it.

The Federal Civil Service Bill passed by the House of Representatives has been forwarded to the National Assembly with a message.

Committee Chairman Khatiwada said that the Committee thought that the bill, which was a significant foundation to implement administrative federalism in the country, should be passed as soon as possible.

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