Incentives planned for staff of foreign employment dept

KATHMANDU, OCT 14 -

In yet another bid to streamline day-to-day service delivery, the Ministry of Labour and Employment is gearing up to introduce performance-based incentives for employees at the Department of Foreign Employment.

The nature and stature of the incentive, however, is yet to be finalised.

Officials claim the ‘productivity-enhancement initiative’ will ‘rescue’ the department that has long been plagued by irregularities, bribe, corruption, widespread anomalies and sluggish service delivery.

The merit-based reward initiative will be one of the several reform-oriented provisions introduced by the department in the last few months. Other recent government measures include adding staff, providing training, increasing self-regulation, and most importantly, provisioning that only the officials having experience of working at the ministry could enter the department. Earlier, officials from any ministry were free to get into the department.

The incentive scheme was one of the many recommendations put forth by the foreign employment suggestion panel set up by the Prime Minister. Members of the committee led by Ganesh Gurung believe the incentive system will help promote competitive attitude among officials.

“It’s a way to make frontline staff more honest towards their job,” said Buddhi Bahadur Khadka, spokesperson for the ministry, adding that the new initiative will set up a good work environment at the office that deals with over 2,000 migrant workers’ issues daily.

Although envisioned to encourage the staff to work harder, outsiders and even ministry officials suspect department official might stick to their old habits. “These possibilities will be resolved through a special mechanism and overseeing body,” said Khadka.

Officials say the possible shortcomings will be thoroughly consulted. “Mere punishment will not reform the staff. Such a reward might encourage them,” said Purna Chandra Bhattarai, director general at the department.

Source: The Kathmandu Post