Kathmandu, October 1
The Federal Civil Service bill introduces a two-year cooling-off period for government employees seeking other appointments after leaving their current job.
A cooling-off period is a fixed span during which someone who has resigned from government service or taken mandatory retirement is barred from taking up another government, constitutional, diplomatic or similar government post.
The bill, brought to Parliament by the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives, Federal Affairs and General Administration, provides for a two-year cooling-off period for government employees before they can take another appointment after leaving their job.
The Cabinet meeting held on September 29 had earlier decided to approve submitting the Federal Civil Service bill to the Federal Parliament. Before that, the Cabinet meeting of September 10 had decided to send the bill’s draft to the Public Service Commission for feedback, and the bill reached the commission that same day. The Public Service Commission has not objected to the two-year cooling-off provision for those who resign or take mandatory retirement from government service.
The government believes that if the proposed provision becomes law, it will stop the practice of moving straight from retirement or resignation from government service into constitutional, diplomatic or other government appointments.
Attempts to bring in a cooling-off period for government employees have been made before, but earlier versions of the Federal Civil Service bill also failed to become law. A version of the bill registered in the House of Representatives in 2080 B.S. (later rendered inactive) also contained a two-year cooling-off provision.
The House’s State Affairs and Good Governance Committee passed and advanced that bill in May 2025, with a two-year cooling-off provision in its report, under which civil servants or other government employees who resigned or retired could not take a constitutional or government post until two years had passed.
Although the House of Representatives passed the bill on June 29, 2025, a dispute arose over the cooling-off provision. A question was raised that the two-year provision set by the parliamentary committee did not align with another subsection of the bill, prompting the House to form a special inquiry committee to study the matter.
Based on that committee’s recommendations, the National Assembly’s Legislation Management Committee corrected the discrepancy found in the House version and advanced the bill with the two-year cooling-off provision retained. Under the version passed by the National Assembly, chief secretary, secretary and joint secretary-level employees would have been barred from constitutional, diplomatic and government appointments for two years after retirement or resignation.
However, that bill did not become law. Although the House of Representatives had passed it and the National Assembly had returned it with amendments, the House had yet to decide on those amendments. In this situation, the House of Representatives was dissolved on September 12. 2025, rendering the bill inactive, and with it, the earlier effort to apply a post-service cooling-off period for civil servants also failed to become law.
The government has now again included a two-year cooling-off provision for employees seeking other appointments after their job in the Federal Civil Service bill.
