531 contractual employees in three organizations barred from hiring contractual employees in government media except essential services

लगानी न्यूज

२५ असार २०८३, बिहीबार १७:५५July 9, 2026

. KATHMANDU: Minister for Information and Communications, Dr Bikram Timilsina, has directed the Gorkhapatra Corporation, Public Service Broadcasting Organisation (PSB) and Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) not to recruit employees in contractual service except when there is a direct disruption in essential and daily service delivery.

Minister Dr Timilsina has directed the government to recruit employees on contract basis only through legal process by clearly identifying the needs of the employees in the public media.TAG_OPEN_div_50 He directed the government to keep employees in contract service only if there were problems in the day-to-day operation of work and that the appointment should be made only on the basis of competition within the legal framework of the concerned organization Act and the Employees Service Condition Bylaw.

Minister for Communications and Information Technology Dr Timilsina said that the use of public media as a political recruitment centre in the past has weakened corporate governance, increased financial burden and added huge responsibility to the institutions.TAG_OPEN_div_48

} In the past, there was a problem in the payment of salaries of the employees of the Gorkhapatra Corporation after it was found that the employees were employed without fulfilling any legal basis, appointment letter or due process. The Office of the Auditor General has been raising questions over the years about the recruitment of unlawful employees in government institutions.

General Manager of Gorkhapatra Corporation, Hikmat Bahadur Rawal, said that the employees management in the corporation would be moved forward in a new and systematic way.TAG_OPEN_div_44 Stating that the situation of appointing employees in a haphazard manner was seen in the past only on the basis of specific orders, he said that proper and legal management would be made now.

“Yesterday, it was seen that the employees were hired arbitrarily on the basis of the specific order. It will be managed through appropriate procedures. The corporation should be strengthened by bringing in necessary, competent and technology-friendly employees,” he said.

General Manager Rawal said that the corporation’s performance would be made more effective by adopting the policy of good governance, transparency and austerity forwarded by the government.TAG_OPEN_div_40 According to him, only qualified and competitive employees are to be hired in the Corporation to develop the Gorkhapatra Sansthan into a modern communication organization with digital transformation and to make the print edition more effective, factual and credible.

According to him, reforms have been initiated to make the corporation commercially self-reliant.TAG_OPEN_div_38 General Manager Rawal said that change in traditional working style and thinking was necessary in the corporation and added that a staff and organization management (ONM) study would also be conducted.

At present, 175 contractual service employees are working in various branches, departments and offices of Gorkhapatra Corporation.TAG_OPEN_div_36 Gorkhapatra Corporation Employees Service Conditions By-Law, 2082 BS has a provision that no contract shall be appointed to any post in the Corporation. Provided that, there is a provision that the vacant posts may be appointed in contract service for a maximum period of six months at a time unless there is no vacancy for the implementation of any particular program or production work, a person with the necessary qualifications is not available or the process of filling the permanent post through open competition is completed.

Also, the bylaws state that the appointment of contract should be made only on the basis of competition. However, in the past years, it has been found that employees have been appointed against this provision.

Similarly, 134 employees are working in various branches, departments and offices of Nepal Television under the Public Service Broadcasting Institution and 222 employees in Radio Nepal on contract basis.TAG_OPEN_div_32 Acting Chief Administrative Officer of Public Service Broadcasting Organization, Arati Chataut, said that an internal study is underway to find out how many essential employees are required in the organization.

He said that the necessary decision can be taken on the basis of study after the board of directors of the organization gets full shape.TAG_OPEN_div_30 The process of filling the post of permanent employees as per the sanctioned vacancy on Nepal Television has been stalled for the past seven years.

Similarly, General Manager of the Rastriya Samachar Samiti Sandip Rai clarified that there are no employees in the contract service except the mother tongue news service in the committee.TAG_OPEN_div_28 “In the case of Ross Stinger, their old contract is coming to an end. We are in the final preparation to invite applications by publishing a public notice for new appointments,” he said.

The government has put forward a policy to make the management of employees in public media organizations legal, transparent, competitive and need-based. Likewise, the Ministry of Information and Communications has stressed on corporate governance, financial discipline and professional and institutional strengthening of public media houses by ending the practice of appointing employees arbitrarily in the past.