Kathmandu. For the first time after the restructuring of the local level, the number of acting chief administrative officers in municipalities and rural municipalities across the country has been reduced to zero.

According to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, 105 municipalities and 86 rural municipalities were run by acting chief administrative officers.

According to Minister for General Administration Bhagwati Neupane, the chief administrative officer has been deputed in all the local levels as per the vacancies.

According to the Civil Service Act, 2049 BS, apart from the employees who are in the retirement stage, the Ministry has appointed the Chief Administrative Officer in order to provide transparency, efficiency and experience of geographical area.

Employees who have worked in ministries or subordinate bodies for more than two years, limited to Valley-centric offices, have not worked at the local level, are employed in the province and are in additional groups.

For the first time, the provision of acting chief administrative officers in rural municipalities and municipalities has been reduced to zero and an environment has been created for the chief administrative officer appointed by the ministry to work compulsorily at the concerned local level by ending external political pressure or the arbitrariness of the local level.

As the Ministry has appointed the Chief Administrative Officer as per the vacancy, the financial or administrative responsibility given to the acting Chief Administrative Officer earlier has been automatically canceled. At the same time, the external influence on the transfer of employees has been eliminated and the implementation of the cyclical transfer system has become easier. Minister Neupane believes that the trend of serving only in accessible places will also be stopped.

Expansion of access to services in remote areas, realization of administrative justice, increase in speed and efficiency of service delivery, promotion of good governance and the tendency of people’s representatives to choose individuals over chief administrative officers would end, he said.

According to Minister Neupane, preparations are underway to appoint chief administrative officers in nine sub-metropolitan cities and one metropolitan city soon.