The parliamentary special committee formed to probe the tampering of the cooling-off period in the Federal Civil Service Bill has come up with a unanimous report, holding two key individuals responsible.
According to a member of the investigation committee, the report has held Ramhari Khatiwada, chairperson of the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee, and Secretary Suraj Kumar Dura responsible for tampering with the cooling-off period. The agreement was reached at 4:15 AM today following two days and two nights of rigorous discussions.
"The language in the report states that the committee chairperson and secretary are primarily responsible for this. Others who were thematically or directly involved are also held accountable," the committee member told Nepalkhabar. The member informed that the report concluded that Khatiwada, in his capacity as chairperson, failed to fulfill his role. "Khatiwada was the one who signed as per the law. The conclusion was that he did not fulfill his responsibility, and this has been mentioned in the report," the member said.
According to the member, the issue of naming other individuals for blame was in the minority, so the report was finalized without naming them.
"No one was explicitly named," the member said. "However, we have mentioned that the Chief Secretary of the Government, the Secretary of the Ministry of General Administration, and the Legal Secretary of the Office of the Council of Ministers did not perform their duties as per their official conduct. It has been stated that action should be taken as per the law."
The committee earlier decided unanimously to put a provision that “a civil servant or any other government employee who resigned or retired from service shall not be eligible for appointment to any constitutional or government position before two years from retirement”.
This issue was discussed in the parliamentary committee, but when the bill was passed by the House of Representatives, an additional clause—82(4)—was inserted, exempting retired employees from the cooling-off period and allowing them to take up government appointments.
After it was found that the term "except" had been inserted to nullify the cooling-off period provision in the Federal Civil Service Bill, a parliamentary committee was formed to investigate.
Discussions continued from Sunday morning until late at night and throughout Monday, but no conclusion was reached on who inserted the term "except" to the cooling-off period clause. Hence, the meeting was extended until Tuesday morning.
Finally, almost 30 days after the formation of the parliamentary probe committee, all seven members of the probe committee reached a consensus on the issue and signed the report this morning, Ishwari Gharti, a member of the committee, told Nepalkhabar.
The committee led by NC Deputy General Secretary and lawmaker Jeevan Pariyar includes two members each from NC and CPN (UML), one from the Maoist Center, and one each from Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP).
Pariyar (coordinator) and NC Whip Sushila Thing from NC, Ishwari Gharti and Narayan Prasad Acharya from UML, Madhav Sapkota from Maoist Center, Ganesh Parajuli from RSP, and Roshan Karki from RPP are members of the committee.
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