Government suspends new recruitment in civil service for current fiscal year

Nepal's government has halted all new civil service recruitment for the current fiscal year, creating uncertainty for hundreds of thousands of job seekers. A meeting of ministry secretaries, led by Chief Secretary Govinda Bahadur Karki, decided that no government office can hire permanent staff or request requisitions for vacant posts without prior approval from the Prime Minister's Office.

The recruitment freeze is a direct consequence of a recent Organization and Management (O&M) survey that significantly reduced staffing positions across the bureaucracy. Hemraj Aryal, spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office, explained that the measure is necessary to manage employees who became surplus after the restructuring.

The government recently approved revised organizational structures, reducing the number of federal ministries from 21 to 18 and eliminating 10 secretary-level posts. This restructuring has also cut sanctioned positions at various levels, from joint secretaries to support staff. The Public Service Commission typically announces thousands of vacancies annually, attracting around 500,000 candidates.

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As we need to manage employees placed on the surplus roster after the reduction in approved positions under the new organisational structure, we have decided not to forward new vacancy requests to the Public Service Commission for the time being.