KATHMANDU: Chair of the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee, Ram Hari Khatiwada, has clarified to the Nepali Congress central committee that the controversial ‘cooling-off period’ provision in the civil service bill was unanimously approved by the committee, and any tampering with it was done later without the committee’s knowledge.
Speaking at the party’s ongoing central committee meeting on Tuesday, Khatiwada said the committee had agreed that retired or resigned civil servants must wait two years before taking up any constitutional or government appointment. However, he revealed that a new sub-clause was added during the process of finalizing the bill, allowing the law ministry to grant approval—effectively nullifying the cooling-off requirement.
“We had clearly written in the bill that someone who has resigned or retired from service cannot be appointed for two years,” Khatiwada said. “But the clause was altered to allow the ministry to approve such appointments. This is a serious breach, and we had no knowledge of it.”
He argued that the State Affairs Committee had reached consensus on the provision and had passed the bill unanimously on Jestha 2. It was only after the bill passed in Parliament on Asar 15 that the tampering was discovered. Khatiwada claimed that even the Speaker and Parliament Secretariat were unaware of the change until after the fact.
Khatiwada emphasized that the committee has met with Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire and urged an investigation. He also said the committee called both the Minister for Law and the Minister for General Administration for clarification, but both were unreachable.
He explained the rationale behind the provision: “A person who serves the state for 30 years and then immediately joins NGOs or INGOs can misuse their connections to lobby for personal or organizational gain. That’s why we proposed this safeguard—to prevent conflicts of interest and protect public trust.”
He added that he has issued a public statement on behalf of the committee calling the tampering an “unforgivable error” and has requested the National Assembly to correct the bill by reinstating the original intent of the cooling-off provision.
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