Kathmandu. The government has brought the ‘Government Decision Process (Simplification and Digitalization) Regulations, 2083’ to make the decision making system of public administration more responsible, quick and effective.

The Government Decision Process Simplification Directive, 2065 has been repealed and converted into a regulation. The meeting of the Council of Ministers held yesterday approved the proposal put forward by the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers to end administrative delays by digitizing the regulations more than the directives.

With the implementation of the new regulations, the digital system has been made mandatory as the primary means of decision-making in government agencies. Under this, all the activities of file registration, comments, opinions, approvals, digital signatures, archiving and monitoring will be done through the integrated electronic decision system. Every file registered in the digital system will be provided with a unique identification number and QR code.

The level of comment has also been reduced to make the decision-making process easy and hassle-free. In policy and important administrative decisions made at the ministerial level, there will be a maximum of three levels of commentary and a maximum of two levels for general administrative matters.

As soon as the file is registered in the system, the time count will start automatically and if no action is taken within the stipulated time, the file will reach the higher decision level within twenty-four hours.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used as an assistive tool in the preparation of laws, precedents, risk analysis and initial drafting of comments to modernize public services. Similarly, service recipients will be able to check the progress of their files through a tracking number received online, mobile app or SMS, while the service delivery will be through a one-door system.

The public entity shall be required to register the file through digital medium through the digital system and the electronic file so prepared shall be considered as official government record.

In addition, the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers will monitor the performance of the offices through an integrated dashboard by implementing the Decision Delay Index to measure the performance of the offices. The regulations have made strict provisions for departmental action against the officials involved in unnecessary delay in the decision-making process or failure to fulfill their responsibilities and deduction of marks in the performance evaluation.