Central Personnel Agency:
Development, Role and Relevancy
Gauri Prasad Acharya*
Abstract
Central personnel agency is a principal entity of government which formulate, regulate
and control personnel administration. The important functions and roles handled by the
CPA are establishment of minimum qualifications, merit system testing, human resource
development, classification, position allocation, recruitment, selection, performance
evaluation, employer-employee relation, compensation, collective bargaining, production
system and retirement. Initially, the aim of central personnel agency is to limit the
discretionary powers of politicians over recruitments and promotions. Furthermore,
central personnel agencies were created with the primary aim of freeing the public
servant from allegiance to and dependence upon the politician. Uniform rules and
procedures maintained by a central personnel agency limit competition among different
establishments and agencies of government and also reduce the possibility of disparity
among employees in the same system. Generally, there are two types of central personnel
agency in practice i.e. single and plural. Nepal has inherited the British pattern i.e.
plural type of central personnel agency. The Ministry of General Administration is
executive type of central personnel agency which executes executive functions on the
areas of personnel. Another equally important central personnel agency is the Public
Service Commission; an independent constitutional body is responsible for the selection
and recruitment of the government employees at different levels on the basis of merit. It
is imperative to strengthen to role of existing central personnel agencies specially the
Public Service Commission and the Ministry of General Administration in the realm of
personnel systems.
Background
Central personnel agency refers the central bodies to formulate, regulate and control
personnel functions in governmental organizations. Moreover, central personnel agency is a
principal entity of government wherever it operates and carries on a myriad array of activities
associated with the human resources of government. Moreover, a central personnel agency is
responsible for developing and administering policies and procedures related to the range of
personnel functions. A central personnel agency may be defined as an organ which deals with
* Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.
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personnel functions having government –wide implications. Each country has its own central
personnel agencies in the World. The central personnel agency is the coordinating agency
between and various ministries.
Development of the Central Personnel Agency
On account of expansion of government organization a number of general and specific
departments have been established to perform the growing governmental activities. The
increasing governmental activities have brought problems in reconciling and integrating the
various personnel functions between and different departments in adopting uniform standard
and operating procedures. Keeping in view of the problems, a separate personnel agency or
department is created in government organization so as to bring uniformity and consistency
in personnel functions. The main theme of creating a central personnel agency (CPA) is to
limit competition between and among different government establishments and agencies and
to reduce the possible disparity among employees in the same system. In several countries,
governments have set up central personnel agency in one form or other as a tool to enhance
administrative capabilities.
The issue of how the overall public personnel function should be organized in public
administration has been plagued by an attempt to realize several incompatible values at once.
Foremost among these values have been those of merit or neutral competence; executive
leadership, political accountability and managerial flexibility and representativeness. The
main problem of the structural organization and policy thrusts of the central personnel
agencies has been that maximizing some of these values requires arrangements ill suited
for the achievement of others. Achieving neutral competence thus requires the creation of a
relatively independent agency to help insulate public employees from the partisan demands of
political executives. All personnel functions like recruitment, training, placement, performance
appraisal and promotion, compensation, employer-employee relations etc need continuous
and careful attention. As modern governments inevitably employ a large number of persons
and these persons are very intelligent and sensitive, recruited as they are on consideration of
merit, especially at higher levels, professional handling of personnel matters is essential.
In modern times, it is feel that the need for creation of separate personal departments in
most of the organization to manage the human element. Managing the human component is
the central and most important task. There is no question but that the selection of personnel
through open competition, under the auspices of a special agency established for the purpose,
has been the major contribution toward checking the evils associated with the job-patronage
spoils system.
Any country whose administration is run on the merit principle has an independent
institution invested with personnel responsibility. The Ministry of General Administration is
the highest level personnel management agency in the country and is responsible for all the
government’s policy, laws, planning research and consultation in this area.
Central Personnel Agency in Nepal
The Ministry of General Administration in its present form was established in 1981.
Actually it is the outcome of frequent changes in the process of institutionalization of
functions related to the development of administrative system in the country. The Ministry
of General Administration is an agency of Government of Nepal to regulate and manage the
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civil service as prescribed governments rules and regulations. For making the civil service
more competent, responsible, motivated, transparent and service oriented, this ministry has
been implementing the various structural and institutional reform programs continuously to
activate the government human resource effectively and efficiently. Basically, the Ministry of
General Administration is working as a central personnel agency to establish and develop the
administration system more competent as well as functioning to coordinate and assist to the
other ministries, which are operating the concerned employees of concerned services.
The Civil Service Act, 1992 of Article 2A has provided the Ministry of General
Administration as a Central body vis-à-vis personnel administration. Accordingly, the Ministry
of General Administration shall, in order to run the administration of the country, act as the
central body in respect of the constitution, operation and conditions of service of the civil
service and the management and operation of the civil employee. Any acts pertaining to the
administration of the civil employee, other than the acts mentioned in this Act or the rules
framed under this Act, shall not be carried out without policy approval of the Ministry of
General Administration. This Act shall be a guideline to the government service employees,
other than the employees of the Royal Nepal Army and of all types of Police Services; and
any Acts and Rules pertaining to such government service employees shall be made based
on the general principles of this Act. We have adopted the British model of central personnel
agency.
The Ministry of General Administration is directly related with the public service
commission which is responsible to recommend the appropriate process according to law. As
a central personnel agency, the ministry should consult and coordinate with another central
personnel agency, the Public Service Commission for the policy decision making process and
Public Service Commission should provide the recommendation and permission of the terms
and condition related to civil service, security of the service, departmental action, service
and group change and matter relating to promotion. Moreover, this ministry serves as a link
between government and the public service commission.
Except the jurisdiction of Public Service Commission MOGA shall audit the
management of the Government Offices and submit the report to the Government of Nepal.
On the management audit process, MOGA can check, monitor and evaluate the whole
condition, whether the administrative rules and regulation is properly implemented or in the
auditing process if it is needed to recommend the departmental action to any employees. It
can too discharge its duties as prescribed by Civil Service Act as well as regulations. After the
promulgation of this new concept of management audit, MOGA jurisdiction has expanded to
cope with the challenges.
Public Service Commission (PSC) was established in Nepal on 15 June 1951 A.D.
The Commission is involved in selecting meritorious candidates required by Government
of Nepal for various vacant posts of the civil service. The continuity of PSC has never been
hindered since its establishment. Present Constitution of Nepal 2007(2063 BS) has designated
the Public Service Commission as an independent constitutional body. It is also an important
central personnel agency with a constitutional responsibility to conduct tests and examinations
for the selection of civil servants and to act as a watchdog on the government’s dealings with
civil servants and their conditions of service. The powers and functions of Public Service
Commission in Nepal are advisory. The role of the Public Service Commission is vital in
public personnel administration.
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Types of Central Personnel Agency
There are mainly two types of central personnel agency: unitary i.e. single and pluralistic
i.e. plural, which are shown below in figure No.1.
Role and Need of Central Personnel Agency
The role of Central Personnel Agency is crucial for enhancing administrative capability
of governmental organisations. The State today is no longer performing only the peripheral and
regulatory functions, but in the perspective of the people's revolution of rising expectations,
has become a change agent, accelerator of economic development, prime mover of social
advancement and upgrade of individual fulfillment and cultural enrichment. In the process,
it permeates into various facets of the citizen's life. With the change in the purpose and
philosophy of the state; the functions of the government have also correspondingly changed
in terms of variety, complexity and universality. Due to the expansion of the governmental
tasks, methodology of operation of the administration would have to acquire a new direction
and orientation. To meet the legitimate urges and demands of the people, the government
must necessarily undertake massive modernisation programmes and transformatory tasks,
converting the old traditional administration to a development administration defined by
Weidner as an action-oriented, change-oriented and goal-oriented administrative system
concerned with the achievement of definite programmatic objectives.
For grooming such personnel, professionally, motivationally and culturally a sound
organisational support system is necessary. The CPA constitutes the nodal agency for
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authority which is the clearing house for all significant personnel activities, which could
give unified central direction in formulating futuristic policies and also in planning other
developmental and promotional programmes. In other words, the Central Personnel Agency,
has to play the leadership role in respect of a dynamic and forward looking personnel policymaking and application of modern personnel practices. 'The value and validity of such an
institution lies in its professional approach, multidisciplinary orientation and expert staffing
apart from bold experimentation in structural patterns. The role of CPA stands very significant
in strengthening the bureaucracy. A weak and powerless personnel agency can not control
bureaucratic malpractice and safeguard the interest of civil servants. For this, CPA has to act as
an supervisory, regulatory and controlling body in respect to policy making, implementation
and development of personnel policies.
Functions of Central Personnel Agency
According to K. Dev and Jain the principal functions of the central personnel agency
are as follows:
 formulating overall personnel policies encompassing recruitment, promotion,
morale, discipline, career development, training and maintaining liaison with the
PSC and other concerned organizations;
 providing guidance and leadership to the departmental personnel agencies in
personnel management, both generally and through advice on individual cases;
 undertaking and promoting research in personnel administration, serving as
a clearing house of information on modern aspects of personnel management,
and manpower planning for government requirements; overseeing generally the
implementation of policies and regulations formulated by the department through
a system of inspections and reporting.
Besides these principal functions the other functions of Central Personnel Agency are
as follows.
1. Formulating Personnel Policy: The first and foremost task of any central personnel
agency is to ensure the formulation of a good policy based on internal and external
sources, researches and special investigations. Personnel policy is the heart of personnel
management. A good personnel policy would ensure the equity, uniformity and
consistency in dealing with personnel issues.
2. Estimation of Current and future Manpower Recruitment: It is responsible for
recruitment planning, policy and research, running of centralized recruitment operations
and selection processes. It determines future staffing requirements to meet the objectives
of the service in the most effective and economical way, and ensure that suitable staff
are recruited, trained and retrained to fulfill these objectives.
3. Research: It undertakes research in aspects of public personnel such as recruitment,
reporting and training techniques, appraisal, interview, job satisfaction and manpower
wastage. It also takes up follow-up programs in these areas.
4. Maintenance of Records: It maintains and develops personnel records and information
systems and provides a common service to various departments, in the form of statistics
relating to the manpower.
5. Development and Deployment: It ensures that the development and deployment of
all groups of staff are achieved in such a way that the staffs individually and in groups
make their best contributions to meet the changing needs of the service.
6. Encouraging Effective Communication at All Levels: It develops effective
communication, consultation and relations between all parts and staff of the organisation
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7.
8.
9.
and helps to design and develop procedures for the resolution of personnel and
institutional differences e.g. by means of joint consultation.
Provision of Physical and Financial Environment: It provides organisational
structures and working environment most suitable for the successful performance of
tasks. It also determines the conditions of service.
Designing Appraisal Systems: It develops appraisal plans to facilitate the career
development of personnel. The field of personnel resembles a lighting rod, attracting
the tensions and human conflicts that abound in the organisation and the community. If
professionally handled, these challenges can be constructive and not a destructive force
in the life of the organisation.
Human Resource Accounting and Audit: The latest function, which must be carried out
by personnel departments, is human resource accounting. Human resource accounting
and audit is the term used to describe the accounting methods, systems and techniques,
which coupled with special knowledge and ability, assist personnel management in the
evaluation of personnel in financial terms. In other words, it is the measurement of the
cost and value of people, for the organisation. The manpower audit is conducted to ensure
that the manpower implementation plans are being executed and the objectives met.
Relevancy of Central Personnel Agency
In modern times, the need of creation of separate personnel departments is increasing
in most of the organization to manage the human element. Managing the human component
is the central and most important task, it and all depends on how well this is done. Some of
the arguments which justify the separate existence of personnel department i.e. relevancy of
a central personnel agency. The following factors show the relevancy of central personnel
agency as follows.
1. Administrative factor: In recent years, there has been great expansion and diversification
of personnel activities in most organisations. To ensure the optimum utilization of
personnel, it is important to provide them a congenial environment and look after their
needs scientifically. From time to time the management has to tackle problems posed by
individual members, usually of personal, domestic or disciplinary nature. All the issues
pertaining to employees either in their individual capacity or groups can be dealt with
conveniently and scientifically, if there is a separate department of personnel i.e. central
personnel agency.
2. Economic Relevance: Experience has shown that the operations of personnel
management will be less expensive if concentrated in a single department as compared
to scattered arrangements to deal with separate activities. It would also require a proper
coordination if there are various sections dealing with personnel to ensure good results,
which would be very costly.
3. Psychological Benefit: The existence of a separate department would help the
employees to develop a spirit of togetherness as well their issues are being examined in
one department.
4. Comprehensive Dealings: Since all the records about an employee are maintained in
a single department, it would be very easy to decide the issues of individual members
quickly. This would raise the morale of the employees as they would not have to waste
their energies in unproductive activities.
5. Managing New Tasks: Administration is tending to become more and more specialized,
technical and scientific. Recently, new areas of administration have emerged and they
call for new and special knowledge and techniques. Even in the field of regulatory
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administration, the increase in the volume of work and the emergence of new problems
consequent upon activities such as increasing industralization, urbanization and the
growing social awareness of the community have created difficult problems, which
require careful and expert handling. Similarly, science and technology in this nuclear
age have projected new tasks for administration. The enormous growth of personnel
has rendered it necessary to devise special measures for ensuring that each member of
the public service gives the best that he is capable of.
All these new trends can be handles by a department of personnel to ensure effective
channelization. Thus, it can said that the personnel department is a specialized staff department
to advise and assist like management officials to formulate policies and procedures and employ
skills to optimize the use of personnel. Its raison d'etre is the reduction of departmentalism
and politicization. In its absence, the operating agencies will go their own ways. They could
choose those practices that best suit their own needs without reference to what any other
public authority in the same public service system may be doing.
Challenges of Central Personnel Agency to rejuvenate personnel system
1.
Service–orientation: The role of the public service observes that government would
to bring home to the services that their first obligation is to render service to and not
merely to exercise authority over the public. It is expected that government would be
ever watchful in ensuring that the government machinery as a whole is helpful in attitude
and prompt in disposal of cases and that deterrent action is taken against discourteous
behaviour and dilatory tactics.
2.
Downsizing the Bureaucracy: In many developing countries, a highly interventionist
as paradigm of government has since the 1960s led to a huge increase in the size of
the bureaucracy. Unless, the size of the bureaucracy is trimmed to levels in keeping
with actual job requirements, ensuring discipline, productivity, and accountability will
remain an unattainable objective.
3.
Professionalizing and Modernizing the civil service: In the increasingly globalized
economy of today, civil service must have specialist skills at par with the best in the
world. The breathtaking changes in technology coupled with an increasingly competitive
global environment, underscore the need for a highly skilled and professional service.
4.
Simplification of Procedures: Among the main reasons for the bureaucracy's apparent
lack of accountability to the citizens, are the highly rule bound and inflexible procedure
which emphasize process rather than results.
Problems and Practical Suggestions
The purpose of the management of any organisation is to effectively achieve the goals,
which it has set for itself by a proper integration of the human and material resources at its
command. The personnel agency is a resource to the organisation. It helps decision-making
by the administration in the use of its personnel resources to achieve the goals in an efficient
manner. However, it is found that the personnel agencies are still not serving the purpose for
which these were created. The factors, which need attention in this context, are:
5. Bureaucratization: Most of the personnel agencies are staffed by bureaucrats who have
no interest in innovations and are interested in status quo. Personnel agencies are staff
agencies and must advise the chief executive rightly. It is presumed that every person
has the capacity to handle personnel department which is totally a misconceived idea.
Persons selected for this department must have research aptitude and training in the
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art and science of personnel administration. They should possess emotional stability,
sound judgment, patience, persuasion, sympathetic understanding, integrity and
strength of character. All these qualities would enable them to bring the individual and
organisational goals closer and thus promote the vitality, capacity and stability of the
organisation. The success of any organisation depends largely on efficient and effective
utilization of its human resources.
6. Lack of Openness to Research in Public Administration: The teachers and writers in
the field of public administration are not accorded due status to help the government in
designing scientific personnel policies.
7. Routinisation: Most of the personnel agencies are busy with the routine cases of
recruitment, promotion and disciplinary action of employees. They hardly find any time
for analysis and research. It is suggested that the personnel agencies should devote more
time in developing rational and scientific personnel policies. Instead of being mainly
regulatory, it will be wider, more comprehensive and more skilled.
8. Red Tapism: Personnel agencies interpret rules and regulations meticulously resulting
in delays and hardships to the employees. Most of the employees visit these agencies
for getting their problems solved during office hours. This results in wastage of time
and resources of the line personnel. Personnel departments should take quick action
based on correct understanding of the case. These agencies should not harass the line
personnel, otherwise the latter would become inefficient.
9. Communication Gaps: There is no shared understanding between the personnel agencies
and the line agencies resulting in misunderstandings. There is a need for frequent meeting
between the head of the line agencies and the top personnel of personnel agencies sothat
they can appreciate each other's viewpoint. There is no harm if these persons are rotated
for short duration.
10. Lack of Fair Play, Impartiality and Justice: At present, most of the personnel agencies
have no definite criteria for assignments, transfers, appointments to field jobs, etc,
resulting in malpractices such as nepotism, corruption and deterioration of services.
These agencies should devise rational and scientific personnel systems to ensure justice.
11. No Effective way for Research and Experimentation: There is any effective way for
research and experimentation to take place in personnel administration. New ideas are
not encouraged, and the means to test them are inadequate. The department of personnel
must encourage fruitful researchers to bring out desired improvements and reforms in
the area of personnel administration.
The following measures also should be adopted for proper functioning of central
personnel agency.
a) Government employees should be more responsive to political needs which reflect the
will of the people.
b) Partisan politics and personal friendship should have no influence on the selection and
advancement of government employees.
c) Government personnel processes should not impede but support the ability of agency
heads to manage their program with flexibility and speed.
d) Government should be a model employer, hiring persons of excellence, providing
attractive pay and benefits, consulting systematically with employee's representatives
concerning conditions of employment, and reassigning or dismissing in effective
employees.
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Conclusion
Central personnel agency controls the public personnel system in the country. The central
personnel agency is concerned with recruitment, development, mobilization, maintenance and
retirement of government employees. The central personnel agency has responsibility or shares
responsibility with operating agencies for a number of personnel functions. Enhancing the
administrative capabilities of civil servants in Nepal is one of the major concerns of the country. It
is imperative to strengthen to role of existing central personnel agencies specially Public Service
Commission and the Ministry of General Administration in the realm of personnel functions.
The agencies may be activated so as to bring improvement in quality of servicing of bureaucracy,
check the politicization in civil service and enhance the professional career development of
civil servants. In Nepal, the Ministry of General Administration should be developed as a
powerful hub for discharging personnel functions in the domain of central personnel agency.
In essence, the MOGA must initiate itself to become a pioneer agency in the realm of personnel
and a real custodian of civil service by adopting the civil service friendly personnel policy.
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