Organization: Arizona State University
Date: Thursday, 12 Nov 1992 11:19:21 MST
From: <ASRPA@ASUACAD.BITNET>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nepal
Subject:    Bureaucratic Upheaval

                    The Xinhua General Overseas News Service

                          Xinhua General News Service

The materials in the Xinhua file were compiled by The Xinhua News
Agency. These  materials may not be republished without the express
written consent of The  Xinhua News Agency.

                          NOVEMBER  11, 1992, WEDNESDAY

LENGTH: 221 words

HEADLINE:  nepal  streamlines administration

DATELINE: kathmandu, november 11; ITEM NO: 1111086

 BODY:

    nepal  is taking steps to streamline its administration in
order to make it  suitable for its multi-party political system.
last friday, the cabinet  secretariat published a list of 62 people
who have been designated, promoted,  transferred and appointed on
contract of various special class, gazetted first  and second class
employees in the civil service.  many posts including the chief
secretary have been appointed for the first time on the two-year
contract basis  and employees will have to take oath of loyalty and
secrecy before they assume  office.  meanwhile, 290 civil servants,
including government secretaries, were  sacked and retired,
according to reliable sources.  the change encompass all  sectors,
including education, army and police.  the sources also revealed
that  some 7,000 more civil servants would be removed this week and
another 15,000  officials will retire automatically as the
retirement age has been lowered by  two years and the ceiling of
30-year service is imposed.  the administrative  reforms commission
had recommended that the overstaffed bureaucracy, a heritage  of
the former non-party panchayat (parliament) system, should be
slashed at  least 25 percent by 1993.  it holds that an effective
size of the nepalese  officialdom should be remained at about
77,000 instead of 127,000 at present.
______________________________________________________________
        Copyright (c) 1992 The British Broadcasting Corporation;
                          Summary of World Broadcasts

                           November  10, 1992, Tuesday

SECTION: Part 3 The Far East; B. INTERNAL AFFAIRS;  NEPAL

PAGE: FE/1534/B/ 1

LENGTH: 254 words

HEADLINE: Senior Cabinet officials dismissed in civil service
''housecleaning'' operation

SOURCE: Hong Kong in English 1613 gmt 6 Nov 92

   Hong Kong in English 1463 gmt 8 Nov 92

 BODY:

   The government has dismissed 290 civil servants including
several senior  secretaries, the French news agency AFP reported
from Kathmandu (Hong Kong in  English 1613 gmt 6 Nov 92), citing
the Nepalese state radio on the 6th. Those  who lost their jobs
included Chief Cabinet Secretary Damodar Prasad Gautam,  Foreign
Secretary N.B. Shah, Secretary for Health Mokunda Shumshere Thapa
and  the member secretary of the National Planning Commission
Bhubanesh Kumar  Pradhan, the radio said.

   The dismissals were reportedly made on the recommendation of a
high level  Civil Administration Reform Commission headed by Prime
Minister Girija Prasad  Koirala. Gautam was succeeded by Cabinet
Secretary Madou Sudan Gorkhali and Shah  was replaced by Nepalese
ambassador to Moscow Yadav Kant Silwal, the radio said  without
giving full details of other changes. Dismissals were said, by the
radio, to have been based on the fact that those concerned had
completed 30  years of government service or had reached the age of
58.

   In a later report, also filed from Kathmandu, AFP (Hong Kong in
English 1463  gmt 8 Nov 92) cited Nepalese analysts as predicting
the dismissal of as many as  9,000 officials in an administrative
''housecleaning'' operation ''aimed at  boosting civil service
dynamism, honesty and efficiency''. Most of those already
dismissed ''were of three categories - inefficient, corrupt or of
doubtful  character in their loyalty to the Koirala government,''
the agency quoted a  Cabinet Secretariat source as saying.
_________________________________________________________________
                       Copyright 1992 Reuters, Limited
                           The Reuter Library Report

                       November  6, 1992, Friday, BC cycle

LENGTH: 253 words

HEADLINE:  NEPAL  SACKS NEARLY 200 TOP OFFICIALS

DATELINE: KATHMANDU, Nov 6

 KEYWORD:
 NEPAL -SACK

 BODY:

    Nepal  sacked over 200 senior officials on Friday, including
the heads of  the foreign and interior ministries, and the
Himalayan state's most senior civil  servant, the government's
press adviser said.

   The pruning of top and middle ranking officials to reduce a
bloated  bureaucracy is cast against a background of a government
still in the throes of  transition from absolute monarchy.

   ''Most of the officials relieved were either too old or
unwilling to change  loyalties from palace to the prime minister's
office,'' Jay Prakash Anand, press  adviser to the government told
Reuters.

   Foreign Secretary Narendra Bikram Shaha, Interior Secretary
Yogendra Nath  Ojha, Chief Secretary, and the senior-most civil
servant Damodar Gautam were the  big names to lose their jobs.

   An amendment of the civil service rules earlier on Friday
enabled the  government to dismiss officials who have completed 30
years of service.

   The government also lowered the retirement age from 60 years to
58 years.

   Absolute monarchy ended in  Nepal  in 1990, and a new interim
government  installed, till elections in May 1991 brought Prime
Minister Girija Prasad  Koirala's  Nepali  Congress party to power.

   The shake-up came amid growing criticism of Koirala from both
the opposition  and senior leaders of his party.

   ''The changes will make the adminstration more effective and
dynamic,'' Anand  said.

   At least three thousand government posts are likely to be vacant
after the  dismissals and introduction of new regulations,
officials said.