In recent years, mainly from Jana Andolan II, Nepal’s top government vacancies have often taken a rather long time to fill. When some vacancies are filled, others open up. One reason for this state of affairs may well have been coalition governance, and the differences over the partners over power sharing down the line. The case of Tribhuvan University exemplified the difficulty in reaching an agreement on the distribution of the posts among the government constituents. But all this has had a massive adverse impact on service delivery. Again, TU typified the loss. Public interests took a back seat and partisan interests dominated. Even now, a number of top vacancies are waiting to be filled — for several SC judges and most of the commissioners, including the chief, of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), for instance.

In such a situation, how can one talk of improving service delivery? While the top court has for long been burdened with a mountain of unsettled cases, the lack of several of its judges is making things worse. The CIAA is reported to have been rather slack over the past year or so, as corruption cases it filed last year number much fewer than in previous years. It is a matter of concern that CIAA is closing case files after issuing instructions to the agencies concerned, instead of prosecuting the offenders, and most of its instructions have gone unheeded. The slack in CIAA activity is reported to have affected the caseload of the Special Court, constituted specifically to hear and settle cases relating to corruption and abuse of authority — it currently has fewer cases to handle. After the public knows that CIAA has become slacker, it does not feel that reporting the incidents of corruption will serve a useful purpose. Perhaps because of that, CIAA is receiving fewer corruption reports these days. Certainly, it is not because corruption has gone down.

The present Maoist-led coalition should now move quickly to remove the hurdles. It is not even a month since the first batch of the Council of Ministers were sworn in, and Prime Minister Prachanda, who had the Koshi disaster to tackle from the day he took office, has also had to be on important foreign visits most of the time. But after his return from the US, this task must receive high priority. Otherwise, lack of decision would, besides hampering public service, erode the government’s credibility. It is expected that the persons trusted with the high responsibility of the state organs, such as CIAA, must be above public suspicion. The candidates’ past records should be investigated, too, including whether wealth disproportionate to the candidates’ legal sources of income has been amassed. At the same time, undoubted professional competence and courage of the candidates should form other prerequisites, not just the minimum qualifications mentioned in the laws and the Constitution. The choice of the candidates will certainly reflect on the government, particularly the CPN-Maoist, whom the people are watching closely because it has impressed upon them that it will make a difference.