Democracy For Nepal: Of People And Bureaucrats: Right Sizing The Government

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Of People And Bureaucrats: Right Sizing The Government

English: mounted Tourist-Police officers in Petra, (Jordan) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don't have concrete, official numbers, I am just guessing, but I doubt I am too off the mark.

There are 100,000 bureaucrats in Nepal. There are 100,000 police officers in Nepal. There are 100,000 soldiers in Nepal. It is a country of 30 million people.

If 20% of the 30 million are Bahun-Chhetri, and they hold most of those government positions, then 20% of 30 million is 6 million Bahun-Chhetris. Even if they are 90% of the government employees, only 270,000 of the 6 million Bahun-Chhetris are on government payroll.

Neither the Bahun-Chhetris nor the non-Bahun-Chhetris (the Dalits, Madhesis, Janajatis) should think right sizing the government is about depriving Bahun-Chhetris of their livelihood.

We don't need 100,000 soldiers. 10,000 would be more than enough. 100,000 police officers are too many. In a federal Nepal, policing will be a function of the state governments. You can't divide the existing police force into small parts and hand them over to the states. I think it is safe to say that at least half of the police officers will have to let go. So you end up with 50,000 police officers. 20,000 might stay as part of the federal police. 30,000 might go to the states. The states are going to want to grow their own native police forces. States in the Terai are going to have primarily Madhesi police forces. That is what federalism means.

100,000 bureaucrats. Half could be let go easily. You have to eliminate a few ministries. You have to streamline others, make them lean.

So you start out with 100,000 soldiers, 100,000 police officers, and 100,000 bureaucrats. And you end up with 10,000 soldiers, 50,000 police officers, and 50,000 bureaucrats. What does that do?

That creates room for the hiring of 70,000 new teachers and health care workers. That creates room for the creation of state level police forces. That creates room for the creation of some state level ministries.

But even after all that, you should end up with less people on state payroll than now. Why? Because federalism is a more efficient form of government. Less is more.

Where do the downsized people go? They go into the private sector.