Chief Secretary Ek Narayan Aryal has said that the alterations in the cooling-off period provision were due to human error.
During a discussion with the committee formed under the leadership of Nepali Congress lawmaker Jeevan Pariyar to investigate the errors in the cooling-off period provision, Chief Secretary Aryal also noted that the issue arose due to a lack of trust in employees.
Although the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of the House of Representatives had agreed on a provision barring civil servants from appointments for two years after retirement or resignation, the provision was altered when the Federal Civil Service Bill was passed by the House. Subsequently, Speaker Devraj Ghimire formed a seven-member committee to investigate the matter.
Chief Secretary Aryal also mentioned that they had met with Speaker Ghimire, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba, and CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and urged them to not include the cooling-off period provision.
"We did approach the speaker after the bill was passed by the committee, stating that the cooling-off period should not be included. We presented our stance in our official capacity, not to play deusi bhailo," Aryal told the committee on July 20.
Here is the statement of Chief Secretary Aryal:
"I have participated in some discussions regarding the Federal Civil Service Bill. I learned through the media after the report passed by the committee was also passed by the House of Representatives.
We have been advocating, as our right, that the cooling-off period should not be included. This remains our demand. I will continue to push for its exclusion until the bill becomes law.
We did raise the demand against the cooling-off period with the prime minister, the president of Nepali Congress, and Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” as well.
After the bill was passed by the committee, we did approach the speaker, stating that the cooling-off period should not be included. We presented our stance in our official capacity, not to play deusi bhailo.
The error needs to be corrected. The problem arose due to a lack of trust in employees, leading to a trust deficit.
For this reason, the alterations in sub-clauses (4) and (5) of the cooling-off period were due to human error rather than intentional misconduct."
