A fundamental principle of a parliamentary democratic governance system is a balance among the three organs of the state, namely the legislature, the judiciary and the executive. However, the executive is often seen dominating the legislature and the judiciary. The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Chairperson of the National Assembly have stated multiple times that the government treats Parliament as its administrative unit during budget formulation. The government ignores allocating the budget requested by Parliament.

Disobeying parliament

While discussing the figure of Parliament's budget, amounting to Rs1.22 billion for the fiscal year 2023-24, constituting a mere 0.07 percent of the total budget of Rs1751 billion, this budget is even lower than that of the Ministry of Women, which lacks any organisational structure at the district and provincial levels.

Despite Parliament's crucial role in legislation and government oversight, the insufficient budget hampers vital functions like monitoring, evaluation and research. This contrasts with countries like Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where parliamentary research is prioritised. The 2023 budget of the Research Wing of the American lower house of Congress amounts to $133.6 million, approximately 15 times larger than the total budget of Nepal’s Parliament 2023-24. Parliamentary committees are also struggling due to insufficient funds, resulting in low performance. The research wing of Nepal’s Parliament is considerably weak, lacking essential personnel and financial resources.

The government has also defied Parliament by retracting budgets and approved plans and programs from its cabinet meetings. For instance, in the 2023-23 budget, projects such as drinking water, tourism, and urban development (amounting to Rs10 million), irrigation and river control (Rs20 million), and road-related projects (Rs50million) were shifted to the provincial level. Similarly, projects totalling Rs5 million were delegated to local levels. Although the subnational levels were prepared to implement these projects, the federal government abruptly withdrew Rs220 million worth of projects through a cabinet meeting, disregarding Parliament's decision.

The constitution mandates the prime minister and the ministers to be collectively accountable to Parliament. However, Parliament continues to be defied. The Legislative Management Committee of the National Assembly has recognised the need for at least 200 additional laws to support the constitution's functioning. Unfortunately, the government has not made progress with these essential bills. Equally important is aligning old laws with the spirit of the constitution, yet this task remains inadequately addressed. The government appears indifferent and lacks seriousness in addressing concerns voiced by parliamentarians during 'Special’ and ‘Zero’ hours in Parliament sessions.

According to the Parliament Secretariat's study report, the implementation of parliamentary committee instructions is disheartening, with only 15 to 25 percent of the directives being executed. Furthermore, the government fails to consult the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Chairperson of the National Assembly regarding the commencement and ending of parliamentary sessions. Additionally, both the government and political parties are neglecting the significance and role of the National Assembly. The assembly has become a platform for politicians facing electoral defeat and those lacking a comprehensive understanding of subnational government issues.

Dominating subnational levels

Just as the executive dominates the legislature, the federal government also exerts dominance over subnational levels. Subnational levels face challenges across various fields. Although the constitution grants state power to the sub-national levels, enabling them to exercise their rights freely, these rights remain largely unimplemented.

For instance, the police security force has not been adjusted to the province. According to government sources, ongoing efforts are being made in this regard, but the prevailing environment lacks the necessary trust. The crucial federal civil law has not been issued yet, leading to significant disruptions in the entire administration system.

Moreover, subnational levels have struggled to deliver. The transformation of several village development committees into wards has not yielded much due to the absence of ward secretaries. This absence has disrupted the daily service flow to citizens, leading to problems in obtaining recommendation letters for events like birth, marriage, citizenship, and passport applications when visiting the ward office. As a result, citizens often have to leave the ward office without the required services due to a lack of staff.

The Employee Adjustment Act 2017 specifies that after employee adjustment, employee management should be handled by the respective levels of government. However, the federal government is attempting to regulate employee recruitment at the local level. They neither send staff nor allow the appointment of employees for local levels.

When discussing the functional responsibilities among the federal units, more than half of the workload from the previous unitary system has shifted to the subnational levels. However, there is little compatibility between functions, finances, and functionaries. The share of fiscal transfers received by the subnational levels is low, with conditional grants comprising a significant portion, over which the subnational levels have no autonomy. Additionally, programs and projects are abundant and imposed by the federal government on subnational levels. Just as the executive controls the legislative branch, the federal government dominates the subnational levels.

Moreover, questions regarding the functioning of the subnational level, the situation of the employees, the impact of the lack of fiscal resources, and the methods used for grant distribution have yet to be addressed. Even in Parliament, this matter has not been given priority. Parliamentarians have struggled to fulfil their roles, with many focusing on development ministries and requesting projects on their letter pads. Despite the existence of intergovernmental coordinating entities, such as inter-provincial councils, to address problems between federal units, the inter-provincial council meeting has not been held for four years. In December 2018, a meeting of the Interprovincial Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, endorsed a "29-point federalism implementation road map." Unfortunately, less than half of these points have been implemented.

Although the constitution grants rights to the sub-national level, Singadurbar attempts to curtail these rights. For instance, the constitution provides royalty rights from natural resources to the subnational levels. In the pre-federalisation period, local levels received up to 50 percent of the fiscal resources. However, in the draft bill of the Inter-Governmental Fiscal Arrangement Act 2017, a proposal was made to allocate only 5 percent royalty to the local level and 10 percent to the province.

In this regard, I drew the attention of the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, party leaders and the president of the parliamentary committee. I also made a presentation to the then Finance Committee of the Parliament. Later, the allocation became 25/25 percent each for the local and provincial levels.

During the 1990s, Nepal attempted to introduce sectoral devolution to the local levels. Had these reforms been successful, the Maoist and Madhes movements could have been averted. Ironically, leaders from these movements now hold power and show little commitment to their original causes. The power stronghold at Singha Durbar overshadows concerns for the rights of common people and grassroots governance. Undermining Parliament and subnational levels weakens federalism, risks losing the achievements made so far, and compromises the constitution.

(This article was first published by The Kathmandu Post, Nepal).