All the public organisations and offices are supposed to deliver their services to people in an efficient manner. A few of them have significantly improved their service delivery system. This has brought a lot of cheers to service seekers. However, many others have failed to upgrade the quality of their services. The Office of the Company Registrar, under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, is yet to win the hearts and minds of many entrepreneurs and other company owners due to lack of efficient management. Located at Tripureshwore of Kathmandu, the key office is in the grip of middlemen who are available there to woo service seekers before it opens every day. The service seekers visiting this office happen to encounter brokers before meeting the employees. The middlemen are found everywhere right from the entrance of the office building to teashops located near by the office compound. For those trying to get their work done on their own, the archiving system is a mess. Interestingly, beneficiaries hardly get their work done without the middlemen's help. Generally, they charge Rs. 8000 or more from a service seeker for extending their help. According to a news report carried by this daily the other day, the middlemen approach the service seekers once the latter get to the office premises. It indicates that the middlemen play a crucial role in the company registration process.

Another interesting aspect is that the middlemen represent the different law firms from various parts of the Kathmandu Valley. As they know each of the employees working in the office, they act on behalf of service seekers. The office witnesses some 100 service seekers on a daily basis. They are there to get their companies registered or renewed. Most of the service seekers are not happy with the quality of services they get at the office. They are forced to visit the office for several days just to get their companies renewed. But the files move much faster when the middlemen are involved in the process. This clearly shows that something is fishy with the registration process. The office employees are found approving such files immediately. It is an open secret that the middlemen offer money under the table. The employees also feel much safer to grab the kickback from the middlemen than from the clients directly.

One can easily experience a messy condition of the office by making a glance at the files and documents scattered everywhere in the rooms. Understaffing is another problem plaguing the service delivery system. The office premises remain unnecessarily crowded because of lack of efficient service delivery. But Director General of the Office of the Company Registrar Bhuwanhari Aryal makes a flimsy argument in defence. Aryal says that almost 90 per cent of company owners do not visit the office themselves. Instead, they send their representatives to the office to seek the help of the middlemen. The argument is not convincing. If the management team had carried out its responsibilities in a more efficient and accountable manner, the service seekers would have the confidence to come forward on their own. A hassle-free, simplified and efficient service delivery system can encourage more people to establish companies and become entrepreneurs creating jobs and revenue within the country.