Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has issued 30-point directives to the government ministries’ secretaries on various topics including making the public services and matters pertaining to public concern prompt and efficient. PM Dahal directed the secretaries of various ministries today at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on subjects related to good governance, service delivery and the people’s livelihood.
The secretaries of all the ministries had presented the progress report, the problems and challenges related to their ministries to the Prime Minister on Monday while the secretaries at the Office of the President and Vice President and the different constitutional commissions and bodies presented the same today.
Making a directive address following the presentation of the work progress of their respective offices and agencies by the secretaries, PM Dahal expected full cooperation from the civil administration and government bodies this time also like during the previous tenure.
He focused his directive address on topics concerned with delivery of public services related to daily needs of the people and with development projects, and with the operation of development works, rather than on broader policy or long-term matters.The Executive Chief mainly expressed his concern regarding the difficulties faced by the general public on matters related to the service delivery, stressing that these matters needed to be addressed promptly.
Stating that the people’s expectation that the services would be accessible at their doorstep along with the practice of federalism has not been fulfilled, he said the performance of the government bodies has not been satisfactory as per the people’s expectations over the last five years. “News has been published that people are in queue since 2am for making passport even when we are having this meeting now. The difficulties associated with acquiring the national identity card is equally harrowing. We do not have a satisfactory answer to the question as to why the identity card is necessary,” the PM said, adding that it will take decades for the 30 million Nepalis to get the National Identity Card in their hand if the works on this matter progress in the current pace.
The situation is such that one has to wait for many years to get the driving license and your immediate attention is required on this issue as well, the PM added.
In course of the address he urged the secretaries of the government bodies concerned to immediately keep in priority works on removing the difficulties the general public is facing while accessing the basic services as education, health, transport, passport, driving license, National Identity Card distribution and footing the land revenue, taxes and fees.
“A situation will come when harsh action would have to be initiated against the officials responsible if the service-seekers have to bear the difficulties of staying in line like they are enduring now to access various services like passport, the national identity card, driving license, the no-objection letter provided by the Ministry of Education, medical treatment of patients at government hospitals and at places for paying the land revenue, land survey and tax and fees, even within a month from the formation of the present government,” the Prime Minister cautioned.The PM said that his attention was drawn to the fact that no significant progress was achieved in the revenue collection front. There are questions concerning the delivery of government service.
He raised the question that the development expenditure has been only 11 percent when the half of the fiscal year is already past. “What are the reasons the targeted development expenditure has not been achieved? Who is responsible? If we do not look for the reasons behind this now, then when and who will do it? Bring proposals of improvement based on facts if there are problems at the policy level. However, there is no shirking off responsibility by passing the buck of weaknesses seen in implementation on someone else,” he said.
He also directed the National Planning Commission to inform the government about the budget allocated for big projects, expenses made so far and physical progress as well as to seek the measures in order to expedite development projects. PM Dahal further said that the budget allocated for development projects would be transferred to work where the budget could be spent if the allocated budget could not be spent as well as work performance of the office-bearers who take responsibility but cannot collect revenue and carry out development works as per the target would be connected with performance evaluation.
On the occasion, he also mentioned that initiatives have not been taken to uplift the quality of public education and there is lack of human resources in education sector. The Prime Minister shared, “The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration should make arrangement of human resources in province and local-level by cutting down unnecessary quotas at federal government bodies. Make preparation to table the Federal Civil Service Act in next parliament session.”
Stating that public service delivery is always problematic, he asked to find out root of the problem. During his address, the PM also raised the issue that citizens had to face deaths and accidents in lack of systematic public transport service. Prime Minister Dahal instructed the Home Administration to settle the crime-related complaints immediately. Likewise, he also urged the bodies concerned to control corruption, to carry out activities in order to prevent COVID risk, to pay attention towards the impact due to cold wave and snowfall, to make smooth supply of daily essentials and to forward activities of development projects in an expedited manner.
