Due to the weakness of the internal control system, irregularities have been found to have increased in federal, provincial, and local levels, as well as other government offices in the district.

This was revealed by the results of the Palpa office monitoring and service recipient survey conducted at the ethics education and awareness program organized by the National Vigilance Center in Tansen, Palpa on Monday. The center monitored 32 offices in the district. Hiramani Subedi, Information Officer and Deputy Secretary of the National Vigilance Center, who monitored the headquarters office, Tansen Municipality, Baganaskali Rural Municipality, and Ribdikot Rural Municipality, informed. “We have been monitoring the offices in Tansen for a few days,” he said. “The most important thing is that the internal control system is weak.” The monitoring has shown that irregularities are occurring in the offices. It has been found that the head of the office has been staying in Kathmandu for a long time due to work. It has been observed that employees are regularly absent from the office. It has been found that employees have not been staying in the office for a long time due to work. Subedi informed that some office heads have been staying in Kathmandu for 161 days since last April. ‘Service recipients have been suffering from long-term work-related problems,’ he said. ‘We did not say this ourselves, but it was seen in the survey of service recipients.’

Information Officer Subedi said that there have also been complaints about having to get work done through intermediaries in the district’s Land Revenue, Survey, Internal Revenue Office, Transport Management Office, and some local levels.

There are 715 posts in a total of 32 offices in the district, but 151 are vacant. It has been found that 5 out of 10 employees are not following office hours, are arranging work and walking. ‘It has been found that work is being done in an unnatural manner,’ he said, ‘This situation seen in the offices shows that the internal control system is weak.’

He informed that in some offices, there were no other employees except office assistants, and some offices were not even able to provide details. The results were made public at a program attended by the head of the District Coordination Committee, the head of the municipality, the chairperson of the rural municipality, the chief district officer, and most of the heads of offices in the district. ‘It was seen that work was done in one office for 161 days from last April to November,’ he said, ‘It is seen that people did not stay in the office for even three months during the 8-month period.’

He said that a survey was also conducted with service recipients in the offices about the services. The survey from the service recipients showed that many people were not aware of the Citizen Charter, did not receive services easily, accounting professionals dominated, and had to take services from middlemen, party workers, and employees they knew. The Vigilance Center has stated that bribes are still required to be paid to employees and middlemen when receiving services. ‘There have been those who have expressed dissatisfaction with the service,’ he said while releasing the survey, ‘both the office employees and the office chief should be held accountable for this.’

Service recipients have also complained that in addition to the service fee, service recipients are being charged additional fees for work, that service recipients are unaware of the right to information, and that public hearings are not effective. District Coordination Committee Chief Tankanath Khanal suggested that the Vigilance Center should also reach out to remote local levels and government offices in Rampur region while conducting programs. Tansen Municipality Chief Santosh Lal Shrestha emphasized that all employees should work with a sense of service, do the work of the people with joy, and submit the details of the assets they are required to submit. Rampur Municipality Chief Raman Bahadur Thapa urged the Vigilance Center to make the results public only after visiting all offices and conducting a thorough study.