The civil service bill draft has sparked a debate in the bureaucracy after it introduced a provision to retire those who have reached the age of 55 or completed 30 years of service. If the proposed provision in the draft becomes law, some employees will be happy, while others will be disappointed. According to this provision, since 10,000 employees will retire in the first phase, employees working at lower levels will have the possibility of getting promoted soon and their service period will increase, which is why they are happy. Employees who have reached the age of 55 are unhappy that they have to retire earlier than the previous provision. 

The provision to retire those who have reached the age of 55 or completed 30 years of service in the civil service bill prepared by the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives, Federal Affairs and General Administration has been introduced only once. Those who have reached the age of 55 or completed 30 years of service on the day the act comes into effect will be forced to retire, while those who are one day away from retirement will be considered lucky to be able to work for 60 years. Some employees have expressed concern, saying that ‘employees who have to retire in one phase will be disadvantaged in terms of salary and benefits’.

They suspect that the government may bring the act through an ordinance within Asad as it takes a long time to become an act. Earlier, the Civil Service Bill was presented in Parliament several times but could not be enacted. The Civil Service Bill, which the government presented in the House of Representatives on 21 Falgun 080 for the fourth time since the promulgation of the constitution, was about to be passed. In the same situation, the bill was inoperative due to the dissolution of the House of Representatives due to the Gen-G movement in Bhadra.

Immediately after its formation, the government had put forward an agenda with a commitment to implement results-based governance to make the overall administration performance result-oriented, effective, measurable and accountable and to transform it into a framework that directly improves the lives of citizens. They have expressed concern that employees retiring before Shrawan will not receive the salary and pension benefits that the government has recently increased. The government has increased the salary of employees by 21 percent from 1 Shrawan in the new fiscal year. There is a suspicion that the government may implement this arrangement immediately as the state will be spared from the additional expenditure of salary and pension by retiring 10,000 employees in Asad itself. 

With the aim of reducing administrative expenses and improving the structure, the government proposed restructuring and reduction of posts in the agenda related to governance reform, which created a debate among the employees. The government's 100-point agenda also included a commitment to bring the Federal Civil Service Act within 45 days. Accordingly, the provisions in the draft of the Federal Civil Service Act, which was brought within a month, have created confusion in the bureaucracy.

Under the provision related to compulsory retirement mentioned in Section 57 of the draft, civil servants will get compulsory retirement after completing 60 years of age. It has been proposed that civil servants who have reached the age of 55 on the day of commencement of the Act and who have reached the age of 58 in the fiscal year in which the Act is commenced will also get retirement in the same year. According to Section 33 of the Civil Service Act currently in force, civil servants who have completed the age of 58 automatically retire.

The current government has prioritized maintaining good governance and making service delivery efficient and streamlined by bringing austerity to the administrative work style. The process of reducing the number of ministries and cutting employees has already been initiated. Immediately after its formation, the government had put forward an agenda with a commitment to implement results-based governance to make the overall administration performance result-oriented, effective, measurable and accountable and to transform it into a model that directly improves the lives of citizens.

The agenda mentions reviewing the number of ministries, managing the current posts, and managing promotions in a way that does not affect service delivery. Accordingly, the government has adopted various methods to cut administrative expenses and streamline the structure since the current fiscal year. The number of ministries has been reduced from 22 to 18, while various offices under the federal government have been abolished. 

After the change in governance, various practices were carried out not only now but also in the past to make the bureaucracy smart and committed. The previous governments formed after major changes in the country's governance system have paid attention to bureaucracy reform, including governance reform. The government formed after the restoration of democracy in 2046 and the government formed after the implementation of federalism had adjusted and cut a large number of employees. 

After the promulgation of the Constitution of Nepal in 2074, the then Ministry of General Administration had made a provision for voluntary retirement for employees who did not choose adjustment at the federal, provincial and local levels in the Employees Adjustment Act 2074. At that time, there was a provision for employees who had completed 20 years of service and were 50 years of age to take voluntary retirement. There was a provision for giving a seven-year lump sum pension to retiring employees and later giving regular retirement.

Similarly, in 2048 BS, the government had also carried out a similar practice of cutting employees to make the administration agile and economical. The then Girija Prasad Koirala government had sent 23,000 employees to retirement. At that time, the 29th amendment to the Civil Service Regulations reduced the number of employees from 102,000 to 77,000. According to the then Civil Service Act 2013, the retirement age of employees was 60 years, but there was no provision for the length of service. The Civil Service Act-2049, enacted in 2049, introduced a system of granting retirement with pension to those who have completed 20 years of service and those who have reached the age of 58.

According to the data of the 'Civil Service Bookstore', there are currently 4,135 employees in the federal civil service who have reached the age of 55, 3,304 employees who have reached the age of 30 years of service, and 1,957 employees who have reached the age of 55 and completed 30 years of service. Similarly, the number of employees going on regular retirement is 2,211 in the current fiscal year 082/83. If mandatory retirement and the proposed provisions are implemented in this way, more than 10,000 employees will retire at once.

Some employees believe that the departure of a large number of experienced employees at once will weaken the administrative mechanism, affect service delivery, and destroy institutional memory. The latest report of the 'Civil Service Bookstore' states that there are currently 151,765 vacancies at the federal level, 51,000 at the provincial level, 35,000 at the provincial level, and 65,500 at the local level. As many of these vacancies are vacant, only 86,485 employees are working in the federal civil service.

Despite the large number of employees in our administration, the problems of the administration not achieving the expected results and the administration being burdensome and costly, and the service recipients not being able to get effective services are very old. The current government has initiated various administrative reform efforts to prevent such problems. The reports of various administrative reform commissions formed earlier had also suggested streamlining the government structure and reducing the number of employees.

However, the problem remains as it is. How to make the administration efficient and result-oriented? The debate on this issue has been going on for seven decades. The commission and committee make suggestions and roadmaps to make the civil service people-oriented, the administration result-oriented, to reform the old thinking and structure prevalent in the administration, and to make the service delivery simple, easy, agile, transparent and effective. However, those suggestions are recorded in government records, are stored in the office store and are not implemented. 

In order to provide quality, transparent and effective services to the service recipients, the work of administrative reform was started in Nepal by forming the 'Administrative Reorganization Committee' in BS 2009. After that, BS 2013, 2025, 2032, 2048 and 2070. Six administrative reform commissions have been formed so far. All the commissions had suggested staff reduction. The recently formed 'Administration Reform Suggestion Committee' led by Kashiraj Dahal had emphasized the need to immediately start the process of administrative reform. The committee had pointed out the need for radical reforms in the existing structure, working style system and evaluation system of public administration to address the concerns and issues of citizens and provide efficient and effective services. The committee is of the opinion that an efficient, effective and smart structure should be built to reduce administrative expenses.