THE Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) has referred a new draft of guidelines for manpower agencies to the Cabinet. The new guidelines, which are expected to incorporate new rules and regulations for recruitment agencies, will potentially resume communications in the process of licence issuance. The government had stopped the issuance of licences to the recruitment agencies, citing several irregularities in the overall procedure. Former labour minister Kumar Belbase was caught redhanded on video tape asking for a bribe from prospective manpower companies to assure the issuance of a licence. He was later sacked by the then prime minister Baburam Bhattarai. Several ministers and government officials were allegedly involved in the corrupt actions, however, no one was actually punished. The guidelines in question will be applied to both the existing and new manpower companies. Although refusing to divulge any details, the government officials said they had incorporated new rules, regulations and code of conduct for the functioning of the overseas agencies. Labour ministry officials said the prime objective of the new guidelines was to replace the outdated provisions with an updated version. They said the existing regulations and provisions had failed to cover new challenges faced by the foreign employment sector. “We expect to resolve all the existing anomalies surrounding the foreign employment sectors with the new guidelines. It can be done only by reining in the manpower agencies where the root of all the problems lies,” said Buddhi Bahadur Khadka, spokesperson of the labour ministry, adding, “The new guideline is expected to be endorsed by the Cabinet within the next few weeks.” Khadka, who also heads the foreign employment division in the ministry, said there would be a change in the provisions of the guaranteed amount for recruiting agencies and agents, educational criteria and building criteria for the agents. A MoLE source said the amount of the guarantee could be doubled, and the agent must possess a School Leaving Certificate equivalent to work. Similarly, the new provision has reportedly set the criteria for the main office building. The head office should have at least eight rooms, said the source. Khadka said that the ministry did not have any immediate plans to resume the suspended process of the licence issuance. But officials at the Department of Foreign Employment said the ministry was preparing to begin the licence issuance procedure. They said that they were devising proper measures to keep the overall process transparent and free of controversy. “The ministry is reportedly planning to resume the stalled process as it’s not good for a competitive market to suspend the licence distribution for too long. But there has not been any official information,” said spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Employment, Divash Acharya. Representatives of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) said a few provisions included in the draft including the educational criteria for operators and manpower agents should be scrapped. FOREIGN EMPLOYMENT SECTOR REFORM
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