Civil servants at local bodies mark services within office hours as additional work so they could draw up to 50 % of their salaries as allowances
-Amrita Anmol : Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal
Last year, Nepal held local elections after 20 years. The polls should have been conducted every five years, but that didn’t happen. So between 2002 and 2017, the local bodies functioned without its elected officials. During the period, civil servants carried out responsibilities entrusted to the elected officials.
After they were required to double their work, the local bodies paid additional remuneration to civil servants by drawing from internal funds. No one opposed this. The District Development Committees also approved it. After that the local bodies’ councils started to hand 5 to 10 percent of their salaries as allowances to the civil servants. For 15 years, they drew the allowances that were funded from internal sources. At some point, they increased the allowances.
But now things have changed. After 15 years, the country held local elections under the new federal constitution. All the local bodies now have their elected officials. The staff who had doubled their work when local officials were not elected can now concentrate on their regular work. But they have been receiving the allowances despite the fact that elected officials have resumed their duty.
In 2011, Ministry of Local Development decided to hand secretaries who oversaw two VDCs an additional 2000 rupees as allowances. But the civil servants at the local bodies had already been entitled to additional salary. After the local elections, the Finance Ministry issued a directive aimed at maintaining austerity and effectiveness on public expenditure. On April 9, 2018, the cabinet meeting approved the 40-point directive, in which the government had decided to revoke the allowances from mid-July, 2018.
Chief Administrative Officer and staff of Tilottama in Rupandehi district. photos: Amrita Anmol
On May 5, 2018, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development had sent a circular on the directive to all district coordination offices, Metropolitan Cities, Sub Metropolitan Cities, Municipalities and Rural Municipalities. But the local level civil servants have not been interested in implementing the directive. The current fiscal budget has also allocated allowances to them under previous arrangements. A visit to several local bodies in Rupandehi, Kapilvastu, Gulmi, Arghakhanchi, Nawalparasi and Dang revealed that almost all civil servants have been receiving the allowances despite its withdrawal.
In Rupandehi district, civil servants receive allowances that are 50 percent of their monthly salary. Among the district’s 16 local bodies, 10 rural municipalities have been handing out 50 percent of their salaries as allowances to their staff. Among the 10 rural municipalities, some provide allowances to its entire staff while others only grant to gazetted and non-gazetted officers.
Civil servants at the district’s five municipalities receive 30 to 40 percent of their salaries as allowances of their salary. The staffs at Butwal Sub Metropolitan City receive 25-28 percent of their salary as allowances. The Sub Metropolitan City’s City Council decided to hand 25 to 28 percent of their salary as allowances to civil servants who had worked before their merger.
Officials who have benefited from the scheme argued that they deserved it. “Even after the elections our workload hasn’t reduced because we have a local government now,” said Ganesh Ghimire, an administrative officer at Kotahimai Rural Municipality of Rupandehi district.
The workload of local officials has significantly reduced, but their allowances have increased. Butwal Sub Metropolitan City of Rupendehi is an example. When he was the city’s Mayor, Bhoj Prasad Shrestha had introduced allowances to the civil servants seventeen years ago. He had argued that they had to spend additional time because of the workload. At the time, officials received 6 to 10 percent of their salaries as allowances. The pay rise was initiated after officials complained of having to go to the field, to carry out their investigation, and to be involved in risky work. The allowance has now increased to 28 percent.
Shiv Raj Subedi, the head of the Sub Metropolitan City, said the allowances had continued because withdrawing it would go against labour rights. For the current fiscal year, Butwal Sub Metropolitan City has allocated 15 million rupees for the allowances. Similarly, Rs. 2.5 million has been allocated in the next year’s budget under ‘Employee allowances based on performance.’
Some local representatives are unaware of officials receiving such allowances without work. In some cases, they got the allowance by even hoodwinking the elected officials. Marchwari Rural Municipality of Rupandehi district is an example of how civil servants are deceiving the elected officials. “The government had decided to hand 50 percent additional allowances to them. They said they were entitled to it so we have not objected to the allowances,” said Keshav Nanda Baniya, the chairman.
Jitendra Nath Shukla, chairman of Sammari Mai Rural Municipality, said, “If the allowances have been given based on the rules, we will not be able to stop it.” He said the additional allowances couldn’t be stopped because he heard it had continued for many years. “Our internal source is diminishing, but we couldn’t stop it,” he said.
Staffs work at Butwal Sub Metropolitan City
The situation of Nawalparasi (Bardaghat Susta West) is no different from Rupandehi. Here, five officials of the five municipalities receive allowances that amount to half their salaries. The municipal officials’ allowance is 25 to 40 percent. Palhinandan Rural Municipality has given up to 50% of their salaries as allowances to the ward secretary and other senior officials. The lower rank staffers have received 25 percent. Chairman Vaiju Prasad Gupta acknowledged that additional allowances were being given. He said from next year allowances will be given on the basis of performance.
Similar cases have prevailed among local bodies in Kapilvastu district. The Rural Municipality officials here also receive the allowance. Bimal Raj Acharya, the Chief Administrative Officer of Kapilvastu Municipality, said the internal resources at his office were at a premium, but it hasn’t stopped the officials from taking the allowance. Acharya said his office had been providing officials with 25 percent of their salaries as allowances. According to Meghraj Padhya, the Chief Administrative Officer of Buddhabhumi Municipality, the officials felt stressed while working under elected officials so the allowances were handed as compensation. Resunga Municipality of Gulmi district and Chhatradev Rural Municipality of Arghakhanchi have also provided officials with allowances. The former gives its officials 20% of their salaries and the latter 33% of salaries as allowances.
Local bodies have devised their own procedures to give allowances to officials. Some local bodies have made arrangements for officials to receive allowances according to their positions. Others have given the allowances depending on the nature of work. At Talottama Municipality of Rupandehi district, municipal authorities have not given the allowance to lower level officials. Butwal Sub Metropolitan City has not given the allowance to its officials that have been adjusted and deal with thematic issues. Resunga Municipality has given allowances to all of its officials. Dilli Raj Bhusal, chief of Resunga Municipality, said his office has given allowances to all official so as not to discriminate.
The working hour for local officials is between 10 am to 5 pm. If they work after the office hours, they get extra allowances. They also benefitting from this provision. But it’s hard to justify the allowances that were given when local bodies were vacant, said Hema Khanal, an expert on local bodies. “There should be no allowances,” said Khanal, “The allowance can be given for extra work, but giving allowances without work means corruption.”
Shiva Raj Subedi, President of Municipality Association of Province-5, said it was unjust for the government staff to work on office hours and also take extra money. “However, we could not remove it immediately because the council had made the decision,” he said.
Local bodies are now busy preparing policies and programs and passing budget for the next year. Officials want to include the provision for allowances in the policy, program and budget to ensure that they receive the allowances throughout the year. Keshav Bhattarai, chairman of Civil Servant Association, said it was their right to receive the allowances. “It’s up to the elected officials to delegate work to officials,” he said, “Although the allowances were launched when local bodies lacked elected officials, these perks shouldn’t be withdrawn.”
Most elected officials who come from political backgrounds are not aware of the legal system. And the government officials are taking advantage of it. Provincial government officials are also aware that officials of local bodies are getting allowance by citing ‘government rules’. But the governments have not been able to regulate it. According to Coordination Section of federal, provincial and local bodies of province-5, the officials in one way or the other receive additional allowances. But case hasn’t come under scrutiny yet. Ram Prasad Dhakal, the undersecretary at the office, said, “We can investigate this only next year after coordinating with local bodies.”
Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, Secretary of Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, said the local bodies should remove the allowances. “The government decided to hand additional salaries when there were no local bodies,” he said, “Now the local government is there. So it should remove the scheme.”
Sudarshan Baral, the Social Development Minister of Province-5, said it will be illegal for local bodies to keep the allowance because the federal government has already removed all the additional funds. “We should encourage employees to work harder,” he said, “But we should do so without interfering with the federal government rules.” We will discuss this with heads of all 109 local bodies of province-5 in the beginning of the next fiscal year and reach to a conclusion,” he said.
