The concerned officials of the State Order and Good Governance Committee, Ministry of Law and General Administration have given an irresponsible answer to the issue of maintaining the provision to neutralize the provision of 'cooling off period' in the Federal Civil Service Bill.

In the meeting held in the State Law Committee on Wednesday, they claimed that they had no weakness during the report writing of the bill. 

The State Administration Committee unanimously decided to keep the provision of 'cooling off period' for 2 years for civil servants and other government employees. Then, in Section 82 (4) of the Civil Service Bill, it was provided that 'a civil servant or employee who has resigned or retired from the service will not be appointed to any constitutional or government post before the completion of two years from the date of retirement'. In accordance with Section 82 (4), the provision mentioned in Section 82 (5A) that ``constitutional or diplomatic appointments and any other appointments made by the Government of Nepal'' should be removed. 

Secretary of the State Law Committee Suraj Kumar Dura, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Law Subhash Kumar Bhattarai and Joint Secretary of the Ministry of General Administration Meera Acharya were involved in the preparation of the report. Acharya, joint secretary of the Ministry of General Administration, who participated in the discussion of the Civil Bill from the beginning, said that there was no instruction to remove the old system after adding the 'cooling off period'.

The decision has been made regarding the cooling period of 2 years. But till now, no clear instructions have been received as to what will be the effect of other clauses related to that and whether to remove that clause or not," she said in the meeting of the State Law Committee. The chairman of the committee, Ramhari Khatiwada, asked about the reason for not asking about the 'cooling off period', mentioning that the effect of removing a section or sub-section at other times is as follows. 

She said she was not involved in the discussions when the final draft of the report was prepared. "Instead of being able to see where the report has reached the committee secretariat, the answer was that it will be on the website after the chairman signs it," she said.

Bhattarai, joint secretary of the Ministry of Law, said that he believes that the issues mentioned in the bill are correct. "Sub-section 4 stopped the government appointment, the matter already in the bill is still stopping the outsiders, so it is our understanding that it should not be continued," he said in the committee, "We could not discuss how to address the now-made sub-section 5." Bhattarai said that he was not involved in preparing the final draft of the

report. "We did not get involved before the final draft report was signed. It would have been different if we had been able to discuss the effects. "There was no search to discuss," he said.

Committee Secretary Suraj Kumar Dura said that there is evidence that there was a discussion about the draft report with Bhattarai, Joint Secretary of the Law Ministry. The report has been discussed. The last one was exchanged by email. The proof is still in the email," he said, "I have sent two copies of the final report for General Administration Minister Rajkumar Gupta to Parliament House through the Speaker. One copy has been taken by the Speaker and one copy by the Minister. We also gave a soft copy to the MP who asked for it.

Committee chairman Khatiwada said that he felt that the law ministry officials and the committee secretary had a role in maintaining the provision to break the 'cooling off period' system. I have taken a stand that the cooling off period should be kept for 2 years. Even though the sub-committee brought a proposal for 1 year, I took a stand for 2 years. "Looking at today, it seems that the law ministry and the secretary of the committee have not reconciled that clause," he said.

Chairman Khatiwada also objected to General Administration Minister Gupta's statement that he had not received the report on the bill. He said that the report was submitted to Minister Gupta in a meeting attended by Forest Minister Ain Bahadur Shahi, Education Minister Raghuji Pant, MP Leelanath Shrestha, and Law Ministry Joint Secretary Subhash Kumar Bhattarai on June 15. Chairman Khatiwada said that joint secretary Acharya was also present when the report was submitted to the minister. It was seen that some people were involved in opening the committee. We have seen the attitude of some civil servants that they only eat and let others go. We have tried to bring a cooling off period to control it. I had to spend so much time to bring it,'' he said. The

committee has requested Speaker Devraj Ghimire to form a high-level committee to investigate the provision included in the bill's report on the non-applicability of the 'cooling off period'.

"When the representatives of the Secretariat, Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration and the Ministry of Law wrote language to deactivate the report of the bill by the committee, it was seen as conspiratorial and malicious in terms of law making, so it was decided to request the Speaker of the Federal Parliament to arrange an investigation by a high-level parliamentary committee to find out what wrongs or crimes have been committed by the person in the said action," the decision of the committee said.

After the chairman of the committee Khatiwada informed about the decision to ask for the formation of the inquiry committee, the Speaker discussed with Khatiwada along with UML Chief Whip Mahesh Kumar Bertaula, Congress Chief Whip Shyam Kumar Ghimire, Maoist Center Chief Whip Hitraj Pandey and RSVP Chief Whip Santosh Periyar. He discussed the structure and mandate of the inquiry committee.

Speaker Ghimire informed that after the return of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, the chief whips have suggested a meeting with the top leaders of all political parties to take a decision. According to the Secretariat of the Speaker, the General Secretary Padma Prasad Pandey has entrusted the Secretariat Secretary (Administration) Rojnath Pandey with the task of administrative investigation and documentation of the matter.  The