Employees will not improve by increasing salaries and allowances. A mechanism is also needed to reward employees who provide excellent service and punish those who are not responsible.
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The purpose of the federal government system of Nepal was to bring the government to the doorsteps of the people. With the idea of making the local level the center of service delivery with rights, there was a kind of hope in the people. But irony! Those expectations are still unfulfilled.
Even today, there is no level to take responsibility for the sufferings, problems and pains that the people are going through on a daily basis. A bureaucracy that does not care about the basic needs of the people has turned out to be a tool to enjoy convenience.
Our ward offices, health institutions, schools or agricultural service centers - government employees are the faces that people meet in all service agencies. But they also have less sense of service, more tendency to seek convenience. Some employees are limited to the practice of avoiding and avoiding the problem rather than finding a solution. Their behavior like filling forms, making them sit in queues, dragging files, asking them to come again and again have become normal for the people. In such a situation, it is natural for the citizens' trust in the state to decrease. It was expected that service flow would improve with the implementation of federalism. But now a kind of 'convenient administration' has been developed in the employee trend. Instead of service needs, problems or geographical conditions, there is a tendency to choose 'the place where the allowance is available'. Employees don't want to go to places where people think they need the service the most. But for transfer or training, there is a desire to choose Kathmandu or other convenient cities. Such a trend is not only reducing the effectiveness of service delivery, but also losing people's trust.
Governance is not a paper, not a slogan, but the behavior that people see and experience. Government employees are the representatives of the government directly visible to the people. When those same representatives are seen as irresponsible, dull and insensitive, then disgust towards the system of governance is created.
In fact, when service delivery is delayed or neglected, injustice is felt by the public. It is still the case that people with disabilities have to run to the office for months for the small task of getting their identity cards made. There is also a lot of hassle and trouble in getting old age allowance, mentioning the name in the relief list or making a letter of recommendation. These problems can be solved by developing a system in which the performance of employees is regularly evaluated and responsibility is assigned based on the results. There should be provision for employees working at the local level to be active in understanding and solving local problems. A work culture should be developed that makes them fully responsible for service delivery. The system of employees themselves reaching out to the people helps to make the service effective.
Employees are not improved by just increasing salaries and allowances. Mechanisms are also needed to reward employees who provide excellent service and to penalize irresponsible ones. It is also necessary to punish employees who do not come to the office on time and do not show seriousness in service. The process of making the service system technology friendly should be effective. From information flow to service monitoring, technology should be used extensively. In order to make the digital system effective, it is necessary to conduct an informational campaign to facilitate the use of technology to the citizens as well as to provide the necessary training to the employees. We talk about development, inclusive governance and good governance. But those slogans are meaningful only when the bureaucracy becomes people-oriented, responsible and sensitive. If employees are not service providers, if they continue to be barriers to access to services, then the governance system is sure to fail. People have paid taxes, they are entitled to services. Therefore, there should be no delay in reforming the bureaucracy. Negligence, tardiness and negligence in service are no longer tolerated.
