Nepal

Kathmandu, August 4

The government has decided to make special arrangements for security at health facilities and health workers, including doctors.

A meeting of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population Upendra Yadav, Minister of Home Affairs Ram Bahadur Thapa, Home Secretary Prem Kumar Rai, high ranking officials of both the ministries, chief of security agencies and other stakeholders recently held at Singha Durbar took a decision to this effect.

As per the decision, the concerned unit of Nepal Police will prepare a list of health facilities under its working area and stay in regular touch with managers, directors and responsible office-bearers of the health facilities.

Home Ministry has already directed all local administrations to coordinate with police in this regard. Health facilities across the country will be under surveillance of police to prevent any untoward incidents.

If any persons or groups try to take law into their hands to damage physical infrastructure of hospital and attack health workers, including doctors, in the course of medical treatment of a person, the hospital administration will alert the police immediately. The local administration will authorise the police to perform their duties for maintaining law and order, and ensuring security of doctors and physical infrastructure of such health facilities.

A copy of decisions released by the Ministry of Health and Population stated that some miscreants resorted to violence in a health facility after the death of a patient while undergoing treatment. The MoHP and subordinate agencies will conduct regular monitoring of health facilities to ensure that they are responsible to the patients and provide services without discrimination.

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration has issued a circular to all local levels to create safe environment for health facilities across the country.

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Kathmandu, August 4

Advocacy Forum has published its preliminary report on alleged encounter killing of Kumar Paudel, Sarlahi In-charge of Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal.

Advocacy Forum in its report said there were sufficient reasons to believe that Paudel was killed by security personnel after taking him under their control.

AF said security personnel had been looking for Paudel ever since the government outlawed Chand-led outfit. AF said evidence gathered from field indicated that Paudel was killed by security personnel after they took him under their control.

AF said members of Paudelfamily and locals claimed that Paudel was killed by the security personnel after they took him under their control. Police have, however, claimed that Paudel was killed in an encounter.

AF said peoplemovement around the incident site was prohibited on the day Paudel was killed. It also said local people did not hear sounds of crossfire as claimed by the police. AF demanded that the government form a high level judicial probe committee to investigate ‘encounter killing& of Paudel. It also urged the National Human Rights Commission to make its report on Paudelkilling public.

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• Performance contract needs to be made accessible to the public

Kathmandu, August 4

With the government making it mandatory for all the ministries and their subordinate departments, agencies and offices to conclude yearly performance contract with employees from this fiscal year, almost all ministries have started to conclude such pact.

The government said the rationale behind the decision taken based on rule 34b of the Civil Service Rules, was to make bureaucracy competent, service-oriented and responsible by reforming service delivery mechanisms. Success of the system lies in transparency, according to experts who demand that content of the contract and results should be made public.

They also warn signing of the contract will just be a formality if the general public is not informed about how the contract has been designed, who is responsible for what, and how they have performed.

Since the Civil Service Rules do not speak anything about making public such contracts, or evaluation of results. The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers says it depends on decision of concerned ministries. Most of the ministries THT talked to, including Foreign Affairs, Federal Affairs and General Administration, Communications and Information Technology and Finance, have yet to decide whether to make public the contracts.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, which started it with the signing of performance contract with Chief District Officers and division heads last year, did not make public the contract for the last fiscal year.

MoHA Spokesperson Ram Krishna Subedi said since most of the ministrywork was related to security, it would be difficult for it to make public such contracts. &Generally speaking therenothing wrong in making public such contracts, or evaluation results,& he told THT, adding, &But for MoHA, it will be impractical given the nature of its work.&

As per the Civil Service Rules, the performance contract includes goals of the office, budget, human and non-human resources and means and time-frame to achieve the goals, results to be achieved or expected outcomes, indicators of the performance evaluation, conditions for the termination of the contract and power required for the implementation of the contract and its validity.

The concerned ministry and department shall regularly monitor whether work as referred to in the performance contract has been carried out. There will be a committee under the convenorship of the concerned ministry, comprising representatives of the MoFAGA and the National Planning Commission for annual appraisal of the work as mentioned in the work performance agreement.

In the event of failure to perform in accordance with the performance contract, except owing to circumstances beyond control, such an employee may be relieved of his/her special responsibility for two years, the rules stated. The content of the contract will depend on the levels of government employees and nature of their tasks. Former Chief Election Commissioner Bhoj Raj Pokhrel said such contracts would definitely bring clarity in terms of reference of government employees, and they would be clear as to what would happen if they accomplished or did not accomplish their assignments.

Pokhrel, however, said success of such contract would lie on its content and transparency. He said the performance indicators and bases of evaluation should be specific and quantifiable.

&The contract and evaluation results should be made public by posting them on social media so that the civil society and the press can hold government employees accountable,& he told THT. &Or else, it will just be limited to papers.&

Former Chief Secretary Som Lal Subedi expressed a similar view. &People should know who is responsible for what, and whether government employees have performed as per their commitment,& he told THT. &Transparency is precondition for success.& Subedi also suggested that the evaluation should be done by an independent professional mechanism.

The system of signing performance contract was first introduced in mid-2000s in public enterprises, but it failed to yield desired results. Public Enterprises Board set up by the Baburam Bhattarai government in 2012 had also planned to implement the system, but the board itself got scrapped last year.

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Kathmandu, August 4

The government has decided to hold by-elections on November 30, according to Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota. He was addressing a press meet organised at Singha Durbar today to disclose the decisions of the July 1 Cabinet meeting.

The government has approved the Public Procurement (eighth amendment) Rules-2019 and published it in the Nepal Gazette.

As per the Cabinet decisions, the government has authorised the concerned agency to form a talks team regarding a subsidised loan of around Rs 21.45 billion from the Asian Development Bank for upgradation of highways in Nepal. The government has decided to determine pay scale of employees adjusted at the provincial and local levels. New pay scale of civil servants and teachers will also be fixed for the current fiscal 2019-20.

Minister Baskota said the Cabinet had decided to provide one million rupees in grant to the Nepal Notary Public Council, include khoret (foot and mouth rust disease) and rabies into the Animal Health and Livestock Service Rules-2000, by making an amendment to the concerned law. The government will provide visa fee exemption to the Open University for its teacher and student exchange programme.

Arjun Bhandari, who received bullet injury during a protest organised demanding action against the guilty of Nirmala Pantarape and murder in Kanchanpur, will be provided with a monthly relief amount of Rs 25,000. Nepali citizenship certificate of eight persons will be revoked for obtaining the certificate by submitting false documents.

Minister Baskota said if adjudications of cases related to development projects and tax were delayed, that would lead to unprecedented hike in project cost and could also harm peopleinterests.

In response to a journalistquery, minister Baskota said the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli would himself bear his treatment cost in Singapore. He said the government paid only for the air tickets of the members in the team that accompanied the PM to Singapore. He said only the government employees who were accompanying the PM would get food and accommodation allowances, as per the government rule.

Baskota said the reports that PM Employment Programme fund was being spent on trivial issues were wrong. He said the government was committed to hold dialogue with Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal but, his outfit had to renounce violence.

The Cabinet has also decided to transfer additional inspector generals of Armed Police Force and approve the visit of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to Singapore for medical treatment.

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