The role of social security benefits to motivate the Nepalese civil servants

Abstract

Civil service is the permanent implementation arm of the government and one of the most important pillars of governance machinery which is conducted on the basis of legal rational authority by the officials selected on the basis of merit system. The quality of public service delivery relies, to the greater extent, upon the competency, efficiency and capability of civil service for which civil servants with high motivation and morale are the cornerstone. Therefore, several provisions-monetary and non-monetary- contribute in the maintaining and enhancing the motivation of civil servants are adopted in various laws and bylaws. One of such provisions is the Social Security Benefits (SSB) and the availability of SSB to the civil servants. They have been widely accepted as the major factor of motivation. The evolution of SSB is the result of the emergence of welfare state. It is said that Nepalese civil servants are lacking the high motivation. In this context it is worth studying to see the degree of the relationship between the SSB and level of motivation of civil servant at present. Though various facilities in terms of SSB have been insured by Civil Service Act and other rules, however, only four aspects namely sickness benefits, maternity benefits, provident fund benefits, pension benefits have been considered for this study. This study shows that the provisions and availability of SSB plays positive role in order to motivate civil servants, ensure social justice and protect fundamental rights resulting in the better result. SSB is important for civil servants during and after their service periods for better standard of life and to ensure commitment towards their job. But in our context, the present provisions are not sufficient to do so thereby indicating the need of further enhancement of such provisions in terms of quality and quantity. Nevertheless, different benefit’s role to motivate civil servants is not the same. They have varying degree of impact. This study has not only been successful in highlighting the effectiveness of overall civil service organizations and quality public service delivery but also has unlock new areas for further investigation on the importance of SSB to motivate the civil servants.