Five administrative chiefs of local governments who commute from home in Kathmandu Valley mark their presence in the register even for absent days. The irregularities of the five officers who have put the e-attendance system out of order.
Shivahari Ghimire : Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal
Officer No 1
Om Prasad Pande, chief administrative officer at Mahankal Rural Municipality in Lalitpur, travels 55 kilometres and back every day from Thankot, Kathmandu. It takes four to five hours to travel the distance on the rural road. Pande was not found at his office in Gotikhel on November 12, 2019 but he had marked his attendance in the register. He had signed there the day before.
On that day two nayab subbas (non-gazetted first class officer), the computer engineer and an office assistant were present. According to Rural Municipality Vice-chairperson Kamala Tamang, the chief administrator attends the office only two-three times a week but signs the register for all weekdays. “Mr Pande does not come to office regularly. We’ve found him to have marked presence even for the day he was absent,” Tamang says. “We find it very hard to work with the staff deployed by the ministry.”
Due to the chief administrator’s irregularity, service seekers are suffering. “When we go to the office three days a week, we find the chief administrator hardly once,” said Prakash Thing, a local resident. “The office chief’s chair is always vacant. He’s not found in office when we approach there for some work. Other officials get angry when we ask where the chief has gone.”
When this journalist did not find Pande in office on November 12, we called him up. Pande lied that he was at office. When we told him that we were at his office, he changed his statement and remarked, “I haven’t affected the service seekers.”
Rural Municipality chief Ram Chandra Dahal shared the difficulty of doing administrative works by taking the government staff into confidence. “We can’t sign the office documents and decisions. Works have been affected as the chief administrator is not regular in office.”
According to Dahal, the local government had offered the chief administrative officer a residence near the office but Pande had declined. Many complain that Pande visits the office like its guest. According to an official, Pande attended the office only for eight days in the Nepali month of Kartik while he marked attendance for all the working days.
Officer No 2
Yuvaraj Acharya, chief administrative officer in Bagmati rural municipality of Lalitpur, lives in Balkot, Bhaktapur. His office at Bhattedanda is 50 kilometres from his residence. It takes at least a three-hour drive for him to reach his office from Balkot. So he does not regularly attend office.
Other staff put decisions and documents on the chief’s table for his signature. He reaches there at his convenience, signs the papers and returns home. “There are complaints of Mr Acharya marking his attendance on the register as he occasionally visits the office,” said Manoj Parajuli, a local.
At 12 noon on October 31, there was silence in his room. Information officer Milan Sharma said Acharya had been late since he comes from far away. Service seekers were waiting for the chief administrator. “We don’t know which day or what time he arrives. Sometimes we return after waiting the whole day as he does not arrive,” says Keshav Timsina of Bhattedanda.
Acharya admits that he gets late to arrive from far away but claims to have been regular at office. Since the electronic attendance system has broken down, officials mark their attendance on the register. In the Nepali month of Kartik, Acharya attended the office only for nine days. Records show that he was absent on other days.
Officer No 3
Rom Bahadur Mahat, chief administrative officer at Konjyosom Rural Municipality in Lalitpur, stays in Sunakothi. It takes him two hours to travel the 35 km dirt road to reach office. At 3 pm on October 31, he was not at the municipal office. Engineer Dinesh Sanjel said that Mahat was not regular at office. “The chief administrator has a lot of work since he signs documents but he is not known to be regular here,” the local official said.
Since the electronic attendance does not work here too, staffers sign at the register. Rural Municipality Chairman Gopilal Singtan said works had been affected since the chief administrator is based far away. Some officials live in rented apartments near the municipal office but Mahat is not ready to live there. Singtan claims to have sent some officials “shirking responsibility” back to the ministry but said chief administrator Mahat had done his duties even if he stayed far away.
Singtan refused to provide attendance records for the month. Information Officer Chitra Dev Dahal provided written statement that Mahat attended the office except on holidays. Even if Mahat’s absence was not registered, he was away from office on October 31. Service seekers said the chief administrator was not found at office most of the time. “We have not found Mr Mahat at office several times,” said Sujan Tamang, a local resident.
Officer No 4
Lok Bahadur Bhandari, chief administrative officer at Panchkhal Municipality in Kavre, is a resident of Lokanthali, Bhaktapur. His office is 45 km away from his house. Bhandari is available in office for not more than four days a week. Surya Bahadur Bhetwal, Panchkhal coordinator of the Save the Environment Campaign, says, “Service seekers await since 10 am but the boss is not seen entering office before 12pm. That too only three to four days a week.”
The electronic attendance is out of order so the Panchkhal municipality staff use a register. Chief administrator Bhandari claimed that the attendance system had not been fixed due to irregular electricity supply. “Not just service seekers, I’m also facing problems as I come from far away,” Bhandari clarified.
Municipal education department Dinanath Panthi, account assistant Sushila Pathak and Sita Maya Tamang also use Bhandari’s official vehicle to commute. They are absent too when the chief administrator does not go to office. None of them was present when this reporter visited the Panchkhal Municipality office in the afternoon of November 13. Bhandari attended the office only for 11 days in the month of Kartik (October 18 to November 16).
Officer No 5
Hari Prasad Chapagain, chief administrative officer at Panauti Municipality, is a resident of Gatthaghar, Bhaktapur. The municipal office is 32 km away from his house. It takes Chapagain at least one-and-a-half hours to reach the office from home.
On the afternoon of November 17, Chapagain was not at his office. The staff refused to show the attendance register. Service seekers who had been waiting three hours for Chapagain since 10am were angry that he had still not showed up.
“Should the officer paid with our tax trouble us?” Ishwar Basnet, a resident of Panauti, asked. “My shoes are about to wear out for frequenting here for a municipal waste management plan.” He complained that he had failed to meet the chief administrator in three consecutive visits. When we called up Chapagain from the office, he said he was on leave due to “family problems”. “We are humans too, get sick,” he said. He, however, had signed his attendance for the day.
The electronic attendance system has broken down in Panauti Municipality too. Chapagain said he had attended the office regularly in Kartik except on public holidays. “I was on leave on October 28. I haven’t been off duty any other day. Ask the mayor if you don’t believe,” he responded.
Mayor Bhim Neupane said he had asked officials not to hamper work even if they stayed far from office. “Definitely. There will be difficulties when officials stay far away,” he said. The local level claims to have provided accommodation but the staff have not used it.
People at the receiving end
People have been hit the hardest due to the local level staff staying far away from their offices. While their long travel has cost fuel and time, office works have been hampered the most. Two years ago, considering the hassles for service-seekers, then-secretary at the Federal Affairs and General Administration Ministry Dinesh Thapaliya led the initiative of issuing a circular to all the local level staff to reside within their federal unit.
Earlier on April 14, 2017, the ministry had issued a circular to the local level employees to report to office on time and not to go on leave without the ministry’s consent. “Officers are requested not to leave office without prior permission from the ministry. Leaves from a local government office have to be approved.”
Thapaliya, who is currently the chief election commissioner, said the chief administrative officers had defied both the circulars. “We had received numerous complaints of officials not staying in their respective local units. Then a group of five or six officers sat at the ministry and issued the circular,” he said. “But the directive of staff residing within the local level was not followed.”
According to Jiblal Bhusal, information officer at the ministry, there have been instances of officials refusing to serve at the local level transferred. For that, the affected people have to appeal to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration for action. Bhupal Baral, joint-secretary at the ministry, said the losses of officials staying far away from their office are for the service-seekers and the state. “It’s the responsibility of the local level to keep checks on their staff. The state incurs losses due to officials’ long daily commute. Therefore, the people’s representatives need to be watchful.”
Two ways of attendance
Officials not reaching office on time who mark their attendance for the whole week during their presence for a couple of days are ruining the electronic attendance system on various pretexts. The reasons they cite for signing on the register include physical damage to the equipment, faulty software and irregular power supply. E-attendance is not functional in Panchkhal, Baneta, Panauti and Dhulikhel municipalities of Kavrepalanchok. The attendance system is broken down also in Bagmati, Konjyosom and Mahankal rural municipalities of Lalitpur.
After the election of people’s representatives, government officials deliberately put e-attendance out of order. The staff have the liberty of marking their attendance on the register as they please. “The people’s representatives are in a position to accept what the chief administrative officer says. The e-attendance system has been deliberately broken down,” said Prasanna Sipkhan, nayab subba at the Panchkhal municipal office, said.
The e-attendance equipment is fitted to the outer wall of the Bagmati Rural Municipality office. But Chief Administrative Officer Yuvaraj Acharya said he marks his attendance in the register instead. “Often there are power outages, sometimes the software doesn’t work. It’s convenient to sign in the register in rural areas,” Acharya reasoned.
Yadav Prasad Koirala, secretary at the Federal Affairs and General Administration Ministry, said the sole purpose of installing the e-attendance system is to make staff regular and punctual. But lack of maintenance of the system has given them leeway. “E-attendance tracks officials who are not punctual. It’s an offence to sign in the register by putting the system out of order,” says Yadav.
