INDIAN ARMY CHIEF INSPECTING MOUNTAIN WARFARE SCHOOL IN MUSTANG Kathmandu, 12 July: Visiting Indian Army Chief Gen, Bikram Singh is inspecting the The Mountain Warfare School in Mustang north of the Himalayan range Thursday.oreign Foreign cadets, including Indians, are participating in a course there. Gen. Singh will also inspect the Third Division Headquarters of Nepal Army and Indian Army pension camp in Pokhara on the third day of his five-day official Nepal visit.. nnnnt POLICE IN SOCIAL WORK Kathmandu, 12 July: Apart from maintaining day-to-day security, Nepal Police has recently been stepping up its presence in social initiatives. Although undermanned, the police have been playing an important role in serving various social and civic affairs, Samik Kharel writes in The Kathmandu Post.. Police have been intimately involved in various social activities, including cleaning rivers and water sources, organising medicals camps, disaster support, renovating holy shrines and sites of cultural importance, awareness campaigns against drugs and various communicable diseases, anti-smoking campaigns and anti-littering campaigns. The police have carried out these initiatives in close coordination with local bodies, the public and other stakeholders. These efforts are mainly taking place inside the Capital. Nepal Police Spokesperson DIG Binod Singh said the main duty of the police is to maintain a proper system in society. This also includes working for various social agendas. “Nepal Police has always been involved in social causes. We concentrate on social affairs without compromising our regular duties as we are mostly involved in these issues during our leisure time,” Singh said. All these social campaigns conducted so far by the police have involved the community at large. Singh said people’s participation places more responsibility on the police to conduct social their campaigns more efficiently. “Communities trust the police more than other authorities because of the dedication and the expertise that police personnel show in their work. People feel comfortable and safe to work under conditions set by the police,” he said. Most of these social initiatives are devised by the government and handed over to the police for implementation. Additional plans are devised and approved by the Police Work Division. “Most of the social initiatives are implemented as directed by the government on a national level. Other extra campaigns, which are later approved by our work division, are based on the vision of police officials to address urgent social issues. Every year, we devise social campaigns centred around urgent social issues,” Singh said. However, there is no government budget allocated for these kinds of initiatives. Singh said a large portion of the budget spent for these social efforts is received from the Police Welfare Fund. Police officials at the Metropolitan Police Range in Hanumandhoka said around 100 police personnel are employed every day for such campaigns. nnnn CONSTITUTIONAL BODIES LEADERLESS WITH SUPERANNUATION OF TOP EXECUTIVES Kathmandu, 12 July: If the CA was the first big casualty of the fragmented national politics, there are now widespread fears that some key state organs and constitutional bodies could be rendered dysfunctional in the absence of political consensus to fill up the vacant positions, Anil Giri writes in The KathmanduPost.. A dozen constitutional positions, including those in the Supreme Court, Election Commission, Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), Public Service Commission (PSC) and Office of the Auditor General will soon be vacant. What is worrying is that the bodies that take a call on many of these appointments are now either defunct or non-functional after the dissolution of the CA and the parliament. The Supreme Court, for instance, will be left with just six permanent justices (out of 21) by December, as permanent and a number of temporary justices will have their term expired by the year-end. In the absence of a parliamentary committee, which vets the appointments of the justices, the apex court will not get the new justices. Acting Chief Election Commissioner Neelkantha Uprety and two other commissioners will retire in November and January next year respectively. The top positions at the EC have to be filled by the Constitutional Council, which remains defunct with the political parties represented at the council not seeing eye to eye. The seven-member Council—which comprises the Prime Minister, Chief Justice, the Speaker, a representative of the main opposition and two Cabinet ministers appointed by the PM—has not been able to meet for a long time for want of political consensus. Nepali Congress (NC), the main opposition party, has refused to discuss any appointments before there is consensus on broader politics. Similarly, the CIAA, which has been headless for over five years and has been run by civil servants, is soon going to be non-functional. The Constitutional Council has not been able to appoint any commissioner and chief commissioner to head the anti-graft body. If the Council continues to remain in death bed, CIAA will be completely non-functional after its Secretary—Bhagawati Kafle—retires in December. Kafle was made the acting CIAA chief some five years ago by a departing chief commissioner, but Kafle, as a civil servant, doesn’t have the delegating authority. This potentially means there would be no constitutional mechanism to check malpractices and excesses by the government officials. Former top bureaucrats admit that the absence of parliament and institutions like the CIAA, Office of the Auditor General and other constitutional bodies would invite serious governance crisis that will ultimately result in the absence of instruments of checks and balance, a vital need for the functioning of a democratic society. Former Chief Secretary Bimal Koirala says the governance crisis will seriously cripple the state as many of the government’s initiatives would now be hamstrung in the absence of a functioning constitutional bodies. “The current Election Commission is one good example that demonstrates how the upcoming absence of the commissioners will gradually make the institution dysfunctional,” says Koirala. Apart from the key constitutional bodies, there will also be other high-profile changes soon. Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Chattara Man Singh Gurung retires on September 9. Lt Gen Gaurav Sumsher Rana is all set to succeed him, unless there’s “massive political upheaval in the next few weeks,” says a senior government official. Similarly, Nepal Police Chief Ravindra Pratap Shah retires on September 14. Additional Inspector General Kuber Rana is the likely successor, but insiders aren’t ruling out one of the two AIGs, Bhisma Prasai or Nabaraj Dhakal, getting the top job. “Hopefully, the changes in all these leaderships will be smooth, but given the deeply entrenched political distrust and the fluid politics of transition, one can’t rule out anything,” says a senior bureaucrat. The bureaucracy itself will soon see its top official retiring. Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire leaves office on August 5. A race of sorts has already begun. The hopefuls, in the seniority order, are Bhagawati Kafle (CIAA) Shanker Prasad Koirala Koirala (Election Commission), Balanand Poudel (Women and Children Ministry), Tana Gautam (Urban Development), Lilamani Poudel ( PMO), Umakanta Jha (Industry) Sushil Jung Rana (Home) and Brinda Hada (Irrigation) and Trilochan Uprety (PMO). The ruling and opposition parties are sharply divided on who should be given the top position. “The longer the parties take to strike consensus, the more serious the complication,” says an official at the PMO. “This will further disrupt the balance of power and promote ad hocism.” Former Home Secretary Srikanta Regmi offers a bleak scenario. “The constitutional and administrative void has been and will benefit PM Bhattarai, more than anyone else. If a bureaucrat defies the government, he will be immediately transferred,” he says. Some others offered different explanations. All, however, agreed that the longer the current state of politics, the worse will be the crisis. “The only way now is to reach consensus and avert a disaster,” says Regmi.. nnnn RICE EXPORTED TO CHINA Kathmandu, 12 July: The government has lifted the four-year-old ban on rice exports, The Himalayan Times reports. The ministry took the decision of exporting 10,000 metric tonnes of rice to China in the current fiscal year, said secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies Lal Mani Joshi. “The rice will be exported through the Rasuwa and Tatopani customs points,” Joshi further added. Earlier, the ministry had proposed about exporting 50,000 metric tonnes of rice to China to caretaker prime minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai, who is currently also looking after the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, said Joshi, adding that the Ministry of Agriculture Development gave a green signal for the export of 100,000 metric tonnes of rice due to good harvest in the country this year. The government took the decision to export rice because the production of rice has substantially increased this year, informed Joshi. “Dozens of companies have already approached the ministry seeking permission to export rice.” However, it will take some more days to publish the ministerial decision in the gazette, he further added. “The decision will be applicable after the gazette notification and the ministry can formally allow various parties to export rice.” The ministry will later take the decision on the quantity of rice imports for the next fiscal year, he told The Himalayan Times. The government may take another decision to allow entrepreneurs to export more rice, the ministry said. Nepal had placed a ban on rice exports in 2008 amid low domestic rice production and the global food crisis. However, the country had 443,000 tonnes of rice surplus in the fiscal year 2010-11, and another 300,000 metric tonnes of rice in the current fiscal year. “The government cannot take a decision regarding exports in haste since the country’s agriculture production is heavily based on the monsoons,” he said. The move to lift the ban on rice exports is expected to discourage the smuggling of rice to China, Joshi said. Nnnn FISCAL MEASURES RESTORE FAITH IN BANKING SYSTEM Kathmandu, 12 July: The fiscal policy for the current fiscal year was successful in restoring the faith of the public in the banking system, yet fell short of few Promises, Dikshya Singh wrtes in The Himalayan Times.. The annual budget for this fiscal year had tried to address the crisis of confidence of the general public on the financial sector as financial institutions were fighting to stay afloat amid the liquidity crisis and cases of bad corporate governance a year back. Last year, before the budget was announced, the financial system was going through an unprecedented liquidity crunch contracting the lending capacity of the banks. Likewise, a month before the budget was announced, five financial institutions were on the brink of a meltdown due to liquidity shortage and bad corporate governance. In order to rebuild the trust of the public in the banking system, the budget had announced deposit insurance for class ‘A’ financial institutions as well and gradually increased the amount that needed to be compulsory insured to Rs 500,000. At that time, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had brought class ‘C’ and ‘B’ financial institutions under the deposit insurance net. “The coverage of deposit insurance to all financial institutions has definitely helped in restoring the trust of the common people regarding the safety of their deposits,” pointed out spokesperson for NRB Bhaskar Mani Gyanwali. However, neither the Deposit and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DCGC) nor Nepal Rastra Bank has pursued the matter of increasing deposit insurance base to Rs 500,000 from the current Rs 200,000. The government has already granted DCGC Rs 500 million as pledged in the budget. Likewise, the budget also had introduced a provision for voluntary declaration on deposits exceeding Rs 1 million unlike earlier when depositors had to furnish the source of income while making large deposits, discouraging people to deposit money at banks. These measures might have been able to cure the problem of liquidity shortage but this time liquidity flush has become a headache for all. The hoarded money with financial institutions and the absence of viable projects to finance has only increased the cost of fund of financial institutions without any downward movement of interest rate. “The coming policies –– both fiscal and monetary –– need to figure out ways to channel the surplus funds in the banking system to productive channels,” said spokesperson Gyanwali. Moreover, to expand banking access to rural areas through microfinance services, the budget had announced to formulate an additional legal framework which has not happened so far. This year’s budget had tried to encourage the merger of financial institutions by waiving registration fees. Though it was not enough to induce mergers, market forces worked its magic and seven pairs have merged and 12 more pairs are in the process. nnnn LABOUR MEET ISSUES 15-POINT DECLARATION Kathmandu, 12 July:s The 3rd National Labor and Employment Conference concluded in Kathmandu on Wednesday, issuing a 15-point declaration that, among others, calls for introduction of social security schemes in both formal and informal sectors, and formulation of the final draft of the labor law within next four months. The declaration endorsed by all stakeholders of the labor market - trade unions, employers´ organizations and the government - would be referred to while formulating or changing policies and laws related to labor. The declaration announced at the conference, held after seven years, has mainly laid focus on rolling out social security schemes in both formal and informal sectors. Currently, the government has only been raising funds - one percent of basic salary - from workers of the formal sector to introduce social security packages, as the initial plan was to rope in employees of the formal sector in the program. But since the draft of the Social Security Fund Act also has provision for participation of workers of the informal sector in the program, trade union leaders have asked the government to accommodate them from the beginning. “In this regard, monetary contribution of the government and employers to the Social Security Fund should be fixed and social security schemes be designed immediately,” the declaration reads. Although it is not known when these schemes will be introduced, the government´s plan is to begin the process once the existing Labor Act is amended and promulgated. The declaration has, therefore, laid emphasis on completing the process of formulating final draft of the Labor Act within the next four months. “Within this period, drafts of Trade Union Act, Labor Commission Act and other laws related to labor would also be prepared,” the declaration says. The declaration has also stressed the need to include a provision in the Trade Union Act that allows collective bargaining between employees and employers at the central level. It has also asked for establishment of a permanent minimum wage determination committee. Among others, the declaration has also called on the government to hold employment summit to devise a mechanism on managing fresh workers entering the labor market, set minimum annual target on generation of additional employment opportunities and explore ways to enhance productivity of workers. “This is essential at a time when the labor ministry has been given the responsibility of addressing problems related to employment in the country,” an official of the Ministry of Labor and Employment told Republica, referring to the recent government decision to shed the component of transport management from the ministry and add employment component to it. Besides, the declaration has also laid emphasis on formulation of Unified Labor Market Information System by coordinating with various government bodies, ending child labor and gender discrimination at workplaces, upholding rights of people who migrate abroad for employment purposes and holding labor and employment conferences at intervals of every three years. Nnnn ________________________________________ SECRETARIES COLD SHOULDER PM Kathmandu, 12 July: Caretaker Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai´s much-touted ´good governance´ initiative has received a major jolt after the government secretaries showed reluctance to sign an annual performance contract, terming it "meaningless exercise in the present situation of excessive political interference", Kiran Chapagain writes in Republica. Bhattarai had initiated a 23-point Good Governance Action Plan six months ago, one of which was to improve the monitoring system of the secretaries´ performance. But the secretaries´ reluctance to sign the contract itself has come as a major setback to the program´s implementation, as they were supposed to sign it within six months starting from new fiscal year. But there is little progress in that direction despite the fact the new fiscal year is just four days away. "Though the concerned ministries are supposed to be prepared for [implementing the annual performance contract program], they are not ready for that," agreed Leela Mani Paudyal, secretary at the Prime Minister´s Office, when asked about the progress in the implementation of the program. The program, included in the ambitious action plan amidst widespread allegation that the prime minister failed to usher good governance despite his political will and priority, aimed at turning the ´process-oriented´ bureaucracy into a ´result-oriented´ one besides making top bureaucrats accountable to their responsibilities. But the government secretaries said they are reluctant to enter into a performance contract with their ministers because they fear that "too much interference" will not allow them to implement their commitments in the contract and their ministers will use their failure to perform as per the contract as a pretext to punish the secretaries whom they do not like. Besides, they said such a contract will be a mere sheet of paper until the political level of the government commits to not transfer them for a certain time. It is a general trend in bureacuracy that the secretaries are transfered along with the change of guard in Singha Durbar and if the concerned ministers do not like the secretaries. "We have seen transfers of our colleagues by ministers for even taking action against erring peons. What is the meaning of signing such a contract in the present situation of excessive political interference in our work, though introducing the annual performance contract is a good idea?" said an incumbent secretary, when Republica asked about his difficulty in signing the contract with his minister. This is not the first time the government has tried to introduce annual performance contract for secretaries. Former Secretary Yubraj Pandey said the concept was floated some four years ago when he was general administration secretary but it never materialized. A sitting secretary also said that the prime minister´s office had held a discussion with all the government secretaries on the concept of annual performance contract some two years ago. "In that meeting, the secretaries vehemently opposed the idea, citing excessive political interference in bureaucracy," the secretary said on condition of anonymity. Pandey too agrees with the sitting secretaries and says, "The concept of annual performance contract is good if implemented. But there should be guarantee that the political level of the government allow them to work autonomously. In this situation, the secretaries will find themselves in difficulty in implementing the contract. It becomes risky for them to enter into such contract." He further says that this program will not be effective unless the government assures the secretaries that they would be transferred through an objective evaluation of their performance. "It is our reality that secretaries are transferred on the basis of flattery and nepotism. Unless secretaries are transferred on performance basis, such a contract will mean nothing even if they are introduced," said another incumbent secretary when asked about his stance on the prime minister announced program. nnnn