Kathmandu, January 5The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration has issued a circular to all local levels, directing them to conduct their self-assessment and publish results by January 21. Local levels told to provide housing progress report Local levels told to abide by procurement rules According to the MoFAGA, the 'Local Level Institutional Capacity Self-Assessment Procedure' requires local governments to carry out self-assessment of their overall performance every fiscal.

It aims to identify strengths and weaknesses of local governments through assessment of performance and outcomes in a bid to make them competitive and more effective. The thematic areas for self-assessment of local units include governance arrangements, organisation and administration, annual budget and planning management, fiscal and financial management, public service delivery, judicial performance, physical infrastructure, social inclusion, environment protection and disaster management, and coordination and collaboration.As per the MoFAGA, each thematic area has a separate indicator for self-assessment.The maximum mark per indicator has been fixed at 1.

Poor performance, moderate performance and excellent performance will get 0, 0.5 and 1 respectively."It is mandatory for the local levels to complete their self-assessment and publish the results through their respective websites and notice boards before the end of December of each fiscal following the approval of the provision from the executive office.

Similarly, the final results should be sent to the concerned district coordination committee, Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers of the province and the MoFAGA by mid-January of each fiscal," the official said.The concerned departments, divisions and sections are involved in self-assessment of the thematic areas.According to the MoFAGA, the chief administrative officer of the local level designates a focal person, and the concerned departments, divisions and sections provide the results of the indicators determined for each thematic area to the focal person.

Subsequently, the focal person consolidates the results of self-assessment of the local level and sends the same to the chief administrative officer for approval before publication of results through the website and notice board.The MoFAGA prepares a consolidated report comprising the self-assessment results of all 753 local levels and conducts capacity development programmes for such local governments, which are found to be poor in results.

The MoFAGA will also officially declare the names of meritorious local levels and decide the amount of fiscal transfer to the local governments based on the results.A version of this article appears in the print on January 6, 2023, of The Himalayan Times. .

This article first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com