Sewa Lamsal has taken charge of the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, becoming the first woman to hold this post in the bureaucratic history of Nepal.
A meeting of the Council of Ministers held in Singha Durbar on Thursday promoted Lamsal to the top post.
The senior most joint secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lamsal had been serving as an acting secretary after outgoing secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal retired on December 5 on the ground of 58-year age limit. The post was lying vacant since then.
Earlier, the PSC had asked the Foreign Ministry to submit the names of three joint secretaries for promotion to the post of secretary following Paudayal's retirement.
Pursuant to Section 19 of the Civil Service Act (2049), the Foreign Ministry submitted the names of three joint secretaries -- Sewa Lamsal, Amrit Bahadur Rai and Krishna Prasad Dhakal -- based on seniority.
Of them, Lamsal is the senior most joint secretary as well as the spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She was serving as an acting secretary following the retirement of Paudyal. Rai is the head of the North East Asia Division while Dhakal looks after South East Asia and the Pacific Division.
Section 87 of the Civil Service Rules, 2050 has laid down a provision, according to which first-class and special-class government employees are promoted through a cabinet decision. Civil Service includes a joint secretary in the first class while the secretary and chief secretary are categorized as a special class.
A promotion committee is formed for the promotion to the special category under the chairmanship of the head of the PSC or a member appointed by him/her in line with Section 20 of the Civil Service Act, 2049 (1993). A member of the PSC, Chief Secretary, and a subject expert nominated by the PSC are members of the promotion committee while the secretary at the Ministry of General Administration becomes member-secretary.
Based on the criteria set for the promotion to the secretary, the committee recommends one of the three people for promotion. According to the decision of the PSC, the Ministry of General Administration recommends the name of the secretary to the cabinet meeting.
