Kathmandu, Aug 5: The Special Committee formed by the parliament to investigate errors in the Report on the Federal Civil Service Bill tabled its report before the House of Representatives today. The Committee Coordinator Jeevan Pariyar tabled the report while stating that it was found during the probe that the bill was not thoroughly discussed in a clause-wise manner, the revised report was not reviewed by the committee members, and that it was neither discussed.
He informed the House that there was no system to integrate the original bill with the draft report and furthermore the sides responsible of integrating the bill into the draft report did not fulfill their obligations, resulting in failure to follow the legal compliance.
The Committee report has suggested that appropriate arrangements be made regarding the error, as political figures have political and moral responsibilities and civil servants have official and legal responsibilities. The committee has suggested that the practice of viewing and studying the original bill and the committee’s original report in an integrated manner be initiated to prevent such errors from occurring in the future.
It also suggests limiting the level of representatives of the concerned ministries to the committee during the clause-wise discussion on the bill, making the minister presenting the bill more accountable and balance confidentiality and transparency in sensitive discussions.
The chair of the concerned parliamentary committee should read out the amendments made to the bill to all members during the decision-making process and develop a system for members to sign on the decisions, said Committee Coordinator Pariyar while presenting the findings of the investigation.
Earlier, the Committee Coordinator Pariyar had submitted the report to Speaker Devraj Ghimire at the Federal Parliament Building, New Baneshwor.
The committee finalized its report last night and had decided to submit it in today’s meeting of the House of Representatives. The committee held 37 meetings over 29 days to finalize the report.
The House of Representatives had formed a high-level special probe committee on July 6, after provisions related to cooling-off period in the Bill came against that was decided by the parliamentary committee that finalized the bill.
The committee comprised Jeevan Pariyar (coordinator) and Sushila Thing from the Nepali Congress, Narayan Prasad Acharya and Ishwori Gharti from the CPN (UML), Madhav Sapkota from the CPN (Maoist Center), Ganesh Parajuli from the Rastriya Swatantra Party, and Roshan Karki from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party.
