Ramesh Shrestha

Foreign employment aspirants may not have to go through agents any longer, while recruitment agencies will also not have to pay hefty sum to these agents.

The government is currently working to introduce an online registration system to maintain a roster of foreign employment aspirants, thus establishing direct contact between recruitment agencies and job seekers. The Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) has already held a few rounds of talks with the Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB) that has been entrusted with the task of maintaining an online roster of individuals eyeing jobs in foreign markets.

“It will help agencies establish direct contact with job aspirants without the help of agents,” Purna Chandra Bhattarai, the director general of the department, said.

The online roster system is being planned as per the recommendation of the Task Force on Foreign Employment Management and Improvement. In its 30-point suggestions, the task force has proposed introducing the online roster system to control rampant cheating by agents.

In the proposed registration system, interested candidates will have to fill up a form mentioning their names, passport number, address, contact number and qualifications. Once the form is submitted, the candidate’s information will be kept in the roster, from where agencies can pick up eligible workers and make direct contact for jobs abroad.
According to Bhattarai, manpower agencies will be given an access code to check the roster, for which they would be charged a certain amount of money per individuals hired.

According to the board, an IT company has approached them with a software for the online registration system a few weeks ago.

“The company has shown interest to run the system, but it is not possible as the government has entrusted the board with this job,” said Sthaneswhor Devkota, the executive director of the board. He said they have requested the company to sell the software. If the company fails to do so, the board will start a process to procure a similar software from another company, he added.

According to the board, a majority of job aspirants are cheated by agents. Even though Internet access is low in the country, one can visit a cyber café for the online registration.

Devkota said the system will gradually bring fraud cases down and also reduce agencies’ dependency on the agents. An estimated 50,000 to 80,000 persons are working as agents across the country.

They introduce interested workers to the agencies, according to the department. However, only six of them are appointed legally by three outsourcing agencies—SOS Manpower Services, Blue Sky International and Dar Al Khaleej Overseas Manpower Consultancy.

Based on the suggestions of the task force, the government is also preparing to take action against agents who have not registered themselves and are not appointed by agencies.

The task force under foreign employment expert and former member of the National Planning Commission Ganesh Gurung had recommended the government to mobilise the local administration to start a nationwide campaign against the agents’ illegal status.

Published on: 24 December 2011 | The Kathmandu Post