Instability Hits Provincial Administration

The bouts of instability in the provincial governments executed through frequent changes of the chief ministers and ministers provide strong indications that federalisation in Nepal is treading on shaky grounds. The political leaders at the federal level dictate indiscriminately as to how their respective party colleagues should act at the provincial levels and call the shots especially on the formation of sub-national governments through alignment and realignment of the political forces. It looks like that the political leadership has not imbibed the ethos and principles of federal governance. Federalism is predicated on the premises of strong self-rule and autonomy at the sub-national level characterised by non-interference by the political and administrative authorities from above and below.

The theatrics of the zero sum political game at the provincial level has discredited and discounted the rationale of federal polity which hints at the poor commitment of key political stakeholders to the current political disposition. In fact major political parties, especially the Nepali Congress and the CPN -UML had not been convinced that the federal architecture of the state would ever suit and function properly. When the issues relating to the state restructuring were being debated in the Constituent Assembly for writing the democratic federal constitution about a decade ago, key party leaders were instead busy venting their reservation on the federalist agenda. Kathmandu based elite, bureaucracy and professionals, barring a few, were not reconciled to the federal recasting of Nepal. 

Unitary arrangements

It was argued that a country of the miniscule demographic and geographic size which has, among others, at least seven times less population than that, for example, of the Uttar Pradesh of India could also be suitably administered and managed through unitary arrangements. Such a geographic size would not be feasible for federal reorganisation, they argued, as the Nordic countries in the north-west Europe, despite their unitary governance arrangement, have achieved high level of human development and egalitarian order. However, despite their reluctance and skepticism they had got along with the pro-federalist forces - especially the Madhes-based political groups- to write the constitution and introduce federal polity in the country. 

It is interesting to note that even today the parties and groups like the right leaning Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and the left leaning Rastriya Jana Morcha (RJM) voice their opposition to federalisation. These groups stress on the need to roll back the federal scheme through an amendment to the constitution. Moreover, Rastriya Swantantra Party that had made a history in the last elections for federal parliament securing sizeable seats in the parliament has not articulated its stance on the provincial governments. Some parties do contend that strong decentralised governance system could prove to be more efficient and effective than the today's resource guzzling, expensive and on top of that very ineffective Pradesh (state) architecture. 

Though the province structure – the intermediary entity – has been considered to be the necessary component   of the three tiered federal structure, it has been questioned because of its poor performance and delivery even as heavy resource is pumped in and involved in its organisational operation and maintenance. Senior political leaders often times do articulate their critical note on the federal state reorganisation, and join in with the political cacophony that Pradesh – the intermediate tier – requires to be removed from federal scheme of Nepal. Despite the criticisms meted out to the Pradesh governments because of their lacklustre performance over the last five years, local governments – Nagarpalika and Gaupalika – have  won all praise of their constituents and stakeholders  for their above the  average performance and delivery. 

The most vital outpost of the local governments have been the Ward Committees that  deliver almost all public amenities and services as the vital neighbourhood governance institution having a sustained, proximate and living contacts with the people. The federal constitution has reorganised into seven states, seven hundred fifty three local governments and around six thousand and four hundred wards. The ward committees, unlike the wards in such countries as India and South Africa, are constitutionally recognised according them a distinct indissoluble and indestructible status. 

Needless to say, local governments are constitutionally protected and appear to be more resilient than the provincial structure. According to the constitution, the local governments can neither be suspended nor dissolved whereas provincial governments can be dismissed on certain grounds. The local governments like the federal and provincial governments exercise state authority as provisioned in the constitution and their functional mandates and competencies are defined in the exclusive and concurrent lists.

Service delivery

The Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission – a permanent constitutional entity – assesses the expenditure needs and capacity of each and every local government units. The equalisation grants are allocated to the local governments as untied fiscal transfers whereas conditional, matching and special grants are also allocated to meet the local development and service delivery obligations. Local government units are in a much more comfortable position from fiscal autonomy point of view than the local governments in many other countries in South Asia including India. However, the situation in Nepal is better as they have asserted their role as the third sphere of the federal government, though several problems are yet to be sorted out. 

With more untied resources at the disposal of the local governments, the cases of misuse and misappropriation has increased in worrying proportions. The pressing question in federal architecture has been as to how to make the provincial governments stable and stoic enough to deliver to respond to the expectations of the people. This calls for strong commitment and determination of political stakeholders to uphold the ethos of federalism enshrined in the constitution of Nepal.

(The author is presently associated with Policy Research Institute (PRI) as a senior research fellow.  rijalmukti@gmail.com)