KATHMANDU, May 16
The Parliamentary Committee has passed the Civil Service Bill with provisions including a two-year cooling period, an age limit of 60 years for retirement, and the addition of a new post: Additional Secretary.
The State Affairs and Good Governance Committee under the House of Representatives unanimously endorsed the bill on Friday.
The Civil Service Bill was registered in the House of Representatives on March 4, 2024 (Falgun 21, 2080 BS). Following a general discussion, it was sent to the State Affairs Committee for clause-wise deliberation on May 28, 2024 (Jestha 15, 2081 BS).
During deliberations on the federal civil service bill, lawmakers proposed a total of 1,583 amendments across 124 groups. These proposals were reviewed and integrated during the clause-wise discussions before the bill was finalized by the committee.
According to committee members, the bill has set a mandatory two-year cooling period for civil servants. Agreement was also reached on introducing the new post of Additional Secretary.
The committee’s report outlines a new structure wherein the Additional Secretary will rank above Joint Secretary but below Secretary. The Additional Secretary will be in the 13th level of civil service hierarchy, while the Secretary and Chief Secretary will hold the 14th and 15th levels respectively. These three posts will be categorised under gazetted special class positions.
The bill also raises the mandatory retirement age for civil servants from 58 to 60 years.
According to the bill, Provincial Chief Secretaries will be under the federal government, while Provincial Secretaries will fall under provincial jurisdiction. Chief Administrative Officers at the provincial level will be part of the Provincial Civil Service. However, until Provincial Secretaries and local Chief Administrative Officers are appointed under the provincial service, the federal government can deploy officials to these roles for up to 10 years, as per the bill’s provisions.
