Kathmandu, October 29. Five civil service employees have been honoured with ‘Integrity Icon Nepal, 2021’ – a drive of Accountability Lab Nepal to incentivize champions of integrity. 

Those felicitated this year are Nursing Officer at Bheri Zonal Hospital Shila Sharma, Nawalpur Chief District Officer Manmaya Bhattarai Pangeni, Agriculture Officer at Makwanpur Gadhi Rural Municipality Chandrakanta Chaudhary, Medical Superintendent at Bharatpur Hospital Dr Sumitra Guatam and Under-Secretary at Language Commission Dr Lok Bahadur Lopchan. 

Sharma has been recognized for her leadership as a COVID focal person in providing efficient services at Bheri Hospital situated in one of the COVID hotspots. Dr. Lopchan has been passionately working towards preserving the languages in the verse of extinction and strongly advocating for languages of ethnic minorities to be taught in the schools. Pangeni has been one of the very few female Chief District Officers, who has strongly advocated for gender issues throughout her career. Chaudhary has been successful in raising the living standards of farmers by supporting them with loans and ensuring they get the prices they deserve for their produce through community cooperatives. Dr Gautam who believes in being a role model and inspiring others rather than complaining. She was able to encourage the health professionals at Bhaktapur Hospital under her leadership which is now considered as one of the best hospitals in the province.

They were honoured amidst a programme on Friday. The ‘Integrity Icons’ were selected based on the votes they received from service recipients. As many as 335 civil service employees were nominated for Integrity Icon this year. 

On October 22, Accountability Lab had made public the names of five civil service employees who were selected for Icon for their honest performance in the public service of Nepal, shared Lab’s Programme Coordinator Asmita Sharma. 

At the programme, Maiti Nepal Chairperson Anuradha Koirala said those continuously serving with honesty can be an example for others. Lab has been felicitating the best performing civil service employees with Integrity Idols for the last eight years.