Kathmandu: Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal informed the House of Representatives that local staff in the Nepali missions abroad will be appointed in accordance with the Local Staff Management Guideline (2072). There are 374 local employees working in the Nepali diplomatic missions abroad. Among them, 185 are Nepali citizens and 126 are foreign citizens. Minister Khanal said that the appointment of local employees is done according to global practice.
According to Minister Khanal, locally available manpower has been appointed on contract basis to assist the diplomatic staff in the Nepali missions abroad in their daily administrative and consular work. Minister Khanal said that instead of sending more staff from Nepal, appointing local staff would be economical from ease of work and administrative and diplomatic point of view.
“Because it is easy and efficient to work with employees who understand the local language, law and work culture, those positions are filled at the local level,” Minister Khanal said. He informed that according to the work nature and workload of the delegation, local employees are appointed in the positions of office secretary, legal advisor, driver, messenger, translator, gardener, security guard and office assistant.
According to Minister Khanal, 374 posts have been approved for local employees in the Nepali missions abroad, currently 126 posts are occupied by foreign nationals and 185 posts by Nepalese nationals. He clarified that since some positions are filled after the ambassador is appointed and become vacant after the ambassador returns, not all positions are employed at the same time.
According to Minister Khanal, a total of 10 local employees are working in the Nepali missions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where there are about seven lakhs of Nepali diaspora. In comparison, he presented the example of the Philippines delegation having 75 local employees. Similarly, he informed that there are more than 40 local employees in Sri Lanka’s delegation, which has about 350,000 Nepali diaspora.
Minister Khanal informed the House of Representatives that while appointing local employees, along with the laws of Nepal, the local laws of the respective host countries and some provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 and the Vienna Convention on Consuls of 1963 are also considered. The government has said that it is also advancing the management of local staff as per the need to ensure the security, welfare and consular services to a large number of Nepalis abroad.
