Kathmandu: 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 presented the findings, highlighting 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.
According to National News Agency Nepal, there was a lack of a system to integrate the original bill with the draft report. The committee identified that the parties responsible for integrating the bill into the draft report did not meet their obligations, leading to non-compliance with legal procedures.
The report suggested measures to rectify the error, emphasizing the political and moral responsibilities of political figures and the official and legal responsibilities of civil servants. The committee recommended initiating a practice of reviewing the original bill alongside the committee’s original report to prevent similar errors in the future.
Furthermore, the report proposed limiting the level of ministry representatives involved in the clause-wise discussion of the bill and increasing the accountability of the minister presenting the bill. It also called for a balance between confidentiality and transparency in sensitive discussions.
During the decision-making process, the chair of the concerned parliamentary committee should read out amendments to the bill to all members and develop a system for members to sign off on decisions, said Committee Coordinator Pariyar while presenting the investigation’s findings.
Earlier, Pariyar had submitted the report to Speaker Devraj Ghimire at the Federal Parliament Building in New Baneshwor. The committee finalized its report last night and decided to submit it in today’s meeting of the House of Representatives. Over the course of 29 days, the committee held 37 meetings to conclude their investigation.
The House of Representatives established the high-level special probe committee on July 6 after discrepancies related to the cooling-off period in the Bill arose in contrast to what was decided by the parliamentary committee that finalized the bill. The committee included members from various political parties: 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.