Structure of Government of Nepal :
The executive branch
of government includes the President, the Prime Minister, the Council of
Ministers or Cabinet, constitutional and statutory bodies, and the bureaucracy,
comprising various personnel services, formed to carry out executive functions.
The President, as head of state, does not perform day-to-day executive
functions, but is a part of the executive branch. In practical terms, the
Cabinet is the highest executive body with authority to issue directives to guide,
control, and govern. Under Article 43 of the Interim Constitution, the Cabinet
can make its own rules on the allocation and transaction of business, allowing
it to set up and run the central secretariat. The Constitution also requires
the Cabinet to perform executive functions in accordance with laws enacted by
parliament. The Interim Constitution provides for a political system with an
“impartial, efficient and fair” bureaucracy.
Head of State :
As head of state, the
President of Nepal is vested with the responsibility of protecting the
Constitution. Under the provisions of the Interim Constitution, the President
was elected from among the members of the CA to remain in office until the
promulgation of the new Constitution. The President is briefed by the Prime
Minister at regular intervals, but does not have substantive executive
functions. All bills passed by parliament become laws upon approval of the
President; the President may ask the government to reconsider the bill but has
no authority to reject it. The President may also seek information and advice
from the Prime Minister as needed. The Vice President functions as the head of
state in the absence of the President. The CA elects both the President and the
Vice President, and also has authority to impeach the two office holders. The
CA elected Nepal’s first President and Vice President in July 2008.
Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers :
The Prime Minister is
the chief executive of the Government of Nepal and is elected by the
Legislature-Parliament. The first responsibility of a newly elected Prime
Minister is to put together a cabinet by appointing ministers, ministers of
state, and assistant ministers. The law does not limit the number of ministers,
and since 2008, depending on the political needs, different prime ministers
have had cabinets of varying sizes. The ministers are individually accountable
to the Prime Minister and parliament, and the Cabinet, including the Prime
Minister and his ministers, is also collectively answerable to parliament.
Under the Interim Constitution, an individual does not need to be a member of
parliament to become a minister.
Administrative Structures :
Ministry :
Office of the Prime
Minister and Council of Ministers:
There is an Office of
the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM) headed by the Chief Secretary,
of special class rank. The Chief Secretary serves as secretary to the Cabinet,
head of the OPMCM, and coordinator of other secretaries. Primary
responsibilities include providing leadership to the civil service, directing
and supervising its performance, making the bureaucracy active and efficient
and leading governance reforms.
Minister:
Ministers are
political appointees who manage the responsibilities of their respective
ministries. As custodian of the executive power flowing down from the Cabinet,
a minister communicates policy directions, administrative orders and decisions
to the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy formulates policies and plans to implement
decisions and directives of the government or the minister through various
central and field level administrative mechanisms. The bureaucracy also
monitors and evaluates program implementation, and recommends policy to the
minister.
The Secretary:
The secretary is a
special class officer. Under the minister’s direction, the secretary prepares
and submits policy proposals for consideration by the Cabinet. The secretary is
the administrative head of the ministry, its line agencies and field offices,
and also supervises and monitors policy and program implementation.
The secretary has both
administrative and substantive (policy) responsibilities. The Good Governance
(Management and Operation) Act 2007 (GGMOA) specifies administrative
responsibilities, which broadly encompass day-to-day duties and functions. The
substantive responsibilities include the technical and policy functions of the
ministry as assigned by law or delegated by the minister.
Field level organizations :
The GGMOA has
organized the administrative system into central and field level units. The
field units focus on service delivery and are present in all five development
regions, 14 zones and 75 districts and sub-districts. Further reorganization is
likely, as there have been demands that the districts be redrawn, because the
existing boundaries laid down five decades ago no longer match local realities.
Changes will also be needed to conform to the new federal structure.
Constitutional Bodies :
Constitutional bodies
function as checks and balances on executive authority by independently
performing certain executive functions. The Interim Constitution provides for
seven such bodies:
(i) The Commission for
Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA),
(ii) The Auditor
General,
(iii) The Public
Service Commission,
(iv) The Election
Commission,
(v) The National Human
Rights Commission,
(vi) The Attorney
General, and
(vii) the
Constitutional Council.
The cabinet appoints the members of these
constitutional bodies on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council — a
measure to ensure their independence and impartiality.
Governance :
Good governance, the
ultimate objective of the executive, can be analyzed in terms of institutional
framework, flow of authority, standards or rules, and processes of operation.
As discussed earlier,
Article 43(2) of the constitution empowers the Cabinet to make rules for the
allocation and transaction of business, but since the GNABR and GNTBR are not
enforceable in a court of law, their application for the purpose of transparent
and accountable public administration is limited: they are largely internal
guidelines. The other basis for government operations is law enacted by
parliament and the regulations the government adopts for implementing those
laws. Here are some of the major laws related to public administration.
The Legislature-Parliament :
A Nepali legislature
was first conceived in the 1948 constitution, but it was never formed. The
first serving legislature, the Advisory Assembly, was formed in 1952, followed
by the Parliament in 1959, the Rashtriya
Panchayat in 1962, and the House of Representatives in 1991. The Interim
Constitution of Nepal 2007 created a new legislative body called the
Legislature-Parliament.36 This chapter discusses the functions of the
Legislature-Parliament, which also serves as the Constituent Assembly.
Constituent Assembly /
Legislature-Parliament :
The CA was formed
through a national election in April 2008, and held its first meeting on May 20
of that year. Its original two-year term expired on May 28, 2010, following
which it extended its term four times, the fourth on November 30, 2011, for six
months.37 There are 601 members in the CA — 240 elected through the
first-past-the-post system, 335 elected through proportional representation,
and 26 nominated by the Cabinet “on the basis of understanding, from amongst
prominent persons … and the indigenous peoples which (sic) could not be
represented through the election…”
The same person heads
both these institutions, as Chairperson in the CA and Speaker in the Legislature-Parliament.
Under the Interim Constitution, the Chair/Speaker and Vice Chair/Deputy Speaker
are chosen by the members of parliament, either by formal election, or by
“political understanding” among the various parties. The Vice
Chairperson/Deputy Speaker chairs the sessions in the absence of the chair. The
Speaker can be removed from office for incompatible conduct through a motion
backed by a fourth of the members and with approval of a two-thirds majority of
all members of the CA.
The Legislature-Parliament
adopts its own rules and procedures for the conduct of business. These
procedures are based on the Interim Constitution, the Constituent Assembly
Rules 2008, and the Constituent Assembly (Conduct of Business of
LegislatureParliament) Rules 2008. All members of parliament are required to
take an oath at the first session after their election to be entitled to
parliamentary rights and privileges.
The Judiciary :
The preamble of the
Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007 fully commits to democratic norms and
values, an independent judiciary and rule of law. It also seeks a balance
between the three organs of state — the executive, the judiciary and the
legislature. This section reviews the structure, systems and effectiveness of
the judiciary
1. Supreme Court :
The Supreme Court is
the highest judicial body. It comprises a Chief Justice and no more than 14
judges. Additionally, ad hoc judges may be appointed for a fixed term as
needed. In practice, such ad hoc appointments have been limited to 10 judges.
2. Court of Appeals :
The Court of Appeals
is the second in the hierarchy. The Chief Justice appoints its judges from
among the judges of District Courts or Class I officers in the judicial service
with at least seven years of experience. Senior advocates, advocates who have
practiced for at least 10 years, or individuals who have taught or conducted
research or worked in other fields of law and justice are also eligible for
appointment. Judges of the Court of Appeals hold office until 63 years of age.
The court mainly hears appeals of decisions of the District Courts and
quasi-judicial bodies.
3. District Court :
The District Court is
a trial court with jurisdiction to hear all civil and criminal cases. Each of
Nepal’s 75 districts has a court, with varied caseloads. The Kathmandu District
Court had a caseload of 11,558 in 2008/09, while the Manang District Court had
only four cases. The Kathmandu court serves a population of 1,081,845, while
that in Manang serves 9,587. A District Court judge holds office until 63 years
of age.
Local Government Institutions :
The Local Self
Governance Act (LSGA) 1999 is the basis for Nepal’s two-tier local government
system. But the local bodies have been without elected representatives since
May 2002, when the terms of those elected in 1998 expired. As a stopgap
measure, successive governments began appointing local officials, and this
practice has continued. (An attempt was made to hold municipal elections in
2005, but the political parties, who feared being sidelined by the royal regime,
opposed it.) In 2008, the government formed All Party Mechanisms (APMs) to make
local decisions, but they were dismissed in January 2012 amid charges of
widespread misuse of local funds.
The LSGA seeks to
promote people’s participation in governance through representative democracy
and decentralization of authority. It establishes the institutional mechanisms
needed for local self-governance and for making the bodies accountable to the
people they serve and represent. Because there have been no local elections
since 2002, the local institutions that were put in place to take democracy to
the doorsteps of citizens have instead become an extended arm of the government
under the direction of the MoLD.
Local Governance
Structure The LSGA establishes the structure of local government institutions
(LGIs). The council is the supreme deliberative body. The council formulates
and approves policies, programs and budgets, periodic and annual plans,
staffing, audit reports, taxes, fees and service charges, etc. The committee is
an executive body that implements the decisions of officials to the committee
who are elected periodically. Between elections, the VDC Secretary, the Chief
Executive Officer of the municipality, and the Local Development Officer (LDO)
at the DDC — all central government officials — carry out the functions of both
the council and the committee.
