सरकारले ३१ निकाय खारेज गर्‍यो, १८ को पुनर्संरचना र ६ गाभ्यो : २० अर्ब बचत हुने अपेक्षाGovernment Scraps 31 State Bodies, Restructures 18 and Merges 6, Expecting Rs 20 Billion in Savings

KATHMANDU — The government has scrapped 31 government bodies deemed unnecessary and overburdened, restructured 18 others and merged six. All of these arrangements have been made through the budget for the coming fiscal year 2083/84.

Bodies with overlapping mandates, unproductive functions and an unnecessary financial burden — development committees, boards, funds and authorities — have been scrapped, merged or restructured on the basis of the nature of their work, according to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers. Among these bodies, created through special acts, formation orders, separate laws and cabinet or ministerial decisions, some have been transferred to the relevant province and local levels in line with the nature of their functions. By scrapping bodies carrying an unnecessary workload, the government expects to save around Rs 20 billion for the state.

The scrapped bodies include the Indigenous Nationalities Upliftment National Foundation, Railway Board Nepal, the Urban Area Public Transport Authority and the Trade and Export Promotion Centre. Also abolished are the National Zoo (Suryabinayak, Bhaktapur), the Bhanubhakta Zoo (Tanahun), projects under the Forest Products Development Committee, the Buddhist Philosophy and Gumba Development Committee, the National Dairy Development Board and the Youth and Small Business Self-employment Fund. The Industrial Development Business Foundation Kathmandu, the Valley Development Authority, the Empowered Bagmati Civilization Integrated Development Committee, the Fapla International Cricket Stadium and Sports Village Infrastructure Construction Committee, the Land Development Revolving Fund and the Town Development Committee are also among those on the chopping block.

The government expects that scrapping unnecessary offices will save a large amount of state investment and uphold financial good governance, said Dr. Bhishma Kumar Bhusal, joint secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.

The decision is tied to the 100-point governance reform agenda the government recently issued. That agenda states that a national standard for the organization and management survey of the federal, province and local levels is to be formulated and approved within 15 days. A good-governance roadmap had been prepared with a policy of merging offices of a similar nature and those involving duplication and triplication of the same work. The previous government had repeatedly announced that it would scrap institutions that delivered no returns and kept adding financial burdens through staff salaries, vehicles and offices — but that decision was never implemented.

Merged Offices

The Law Book Management Committee has been merged into the Printing Department, and the Insect-borne Disease Research and Training Centre Development Committee into the Epidemiology Division of the Ministry of Health. The National Tea and Coffee Development Board has been transferred to the relevant province. The Kathmandu Valley Water Supply Management Board, Kathmandu Valley Water Supply Limited, the central office of the Water Supply Corporation and the Water Tariff Fixation Commission have been merged together, the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers said. Likewise, the Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Committee has been merged into Nepal Transit and Warehouse Limited, and the Nepal Mountain Foundation into Nepal Tourism and Hotel Management.

Administration and legal expert Kashiraj Dahal said that although various commissions formed earlier had recommended scrapping unnecessary offices, their failure to be abolished until now has kept piling unnecessary financial liability on the state.

Restructured Bodies

The National Academy of Medical Sciences, the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences and the Patan Academy of Health Sciences, along with the Karnali, Pokhara and Rapti health science academies, are to be restructured and their management strengthened through an umbrella act. The district-level offices of the National Agriculture Modernization Program are to be removed and the program retained across the seven provinces. As for the Kalimati Fruits and Vegetable Market Development Committee, the report notes that further study is needed on whether to transfer it to the relevant local level or lease it out.