Public Service in Reverse Gear

Nepal’s driving license backlog problem reveals a severe failure in public services delivery. The government has received fees from license applicants running into millions. However, it still does not provide these applicants with license cards within a reasonable period of time, indicating a lack of respect by government offices towards license applicants. About 2.6 million smart driving licenses are yet to be printed, while more than 3,000 fresh requests are accommodated daily. An estimated 500 cards are printed per day, demonstrating the gap between demand and supply of license cards has been widening every day. Despite the government department’s failure, several transportation centers conduct exams, process requests, and charge complete fees. This backlog came from poor planning and poor decisions. The introduction of smart licenses came without capacity creation such as equipment, microchips, software, skilled personnel, and repair services. The print function of licenses was handed over to the Security Printing Centre, but its capacity has never been adequate compared to the large number of applicants. In the meantime, the process of tender bids for procurement of license has come to a halt several times. The delays caused the backlog to build, yet the department continued to charge fees as usual from license seekers. Meanwhile, contracts to print and procure licenses have been allowed and scrapped and then awarded again. Domestic efforts to print licenses have failed because of the products’ quality. The imported mass printers remained inoperable due to an inadequate number of trained workers and staff.