OCR’s server down for a week, Renewal and compliance of over 300,000 firms disrupted

KATHMANDU: Services at Nepal’s Office of the Company Registrar (OCR) have remained largely paralyzed for the past week after the government’s online system (CAMIS) suffered a prolonged server failure, severely affecting company registration, renewal, and statutory compliance of more than 300,000 registered firms.

According to the OCR, technical problems surfaced last Friday, bringing key online services to a halt. As a result, new company registrations, updates of company details, name changes, share structure amendments, document authentication, annual renewals, and corrections of legal documents have all been disrupted.

The outage has come at a critical time, with the end of the fiscal compliance deadline in mid-January approaching, when companies are legally required to submit updates and renew registrations. With the server down, service seekers—including businesses, auditors, and legal representatives—have been left stranded.

Chartered Accountant Dhruva Adhikari said such server failures have become a recurring problem at the Company Registrar’s Office, particularly as the mid-January deadline approaches each year.
“This problem repeats every year as the deadline nears,” he said. “The server capacity has never been sufficient to handle peak demand. Technically, the system should have moved to options like multi-hosting or scalable infrastructure, but no such preparedness is visible.”

Adhikari questioned the effectiveness of the government’s investment in the current system, arguing that the performance does not match the cost incurred.

“If a system designed to handle 10 users is suddenly accessed by 100, failure is inevitable,” he said. “Despite heavy spending, the system lacks the required capacity and efficiency.”

He noted that such frequent breakdowns are rare in private-sector websites or banking and financial institutions’ digital platforms, but continue to plague government systems. “This clearly reflects institutional and technical weaknesses on the government’s side,” he added.

Adhikari also raised concerns over penalties imposed on companies despite service disruptions caused by the government itself.

“Even when the system fails due to government shortcomings, the burden of penalties falls on service seekers,” he said. “If documents are submitted even slightly late, fines are imposed. Without revising the regulations, this problem will persist.”

He further pointed to weak vendor management, saying contracts signed with system vendors lack sufficient safeguards and accountability. Although the system has been upgraded from an older platform, Adhikari said core problems remain unresolved even after migration.

“Earlier, the old system was usable only late at night. Even after upgrading, server capacity remains inadequate, and many legacy issues continue,” he said.

Registrar Cites Excessive Load, Assures Swift Resolution

The Office of the Company Registrar, however, has attributed the disruption to excessive system load as the renewal deadline approaches. Information Officer Ram Prasad Gyawali said the surge in simultaneous users led to the server crash.

“There has been an extraordinary rush for company renewals as mid-January approaches, which caused the server to go down,” Gyawali said. “Our technical team is actively working to resolve the issue, and the problem should be fixed by this evening or by tomorrow.”

Gyawali said more than 350,000 companies are currently registered at the OCR, and when many attempt to update their records at the same time, the system faces extreme pressure. He also noted that CAMIS is now being handled by a new technical vendor, which has slightly delayed problem identification and resolution.

He claimed services are not completely shut down and have started operating partially. Once fully functional, company registration and related services are typically completed within one to two days. While the online system allows access from anywhere, Gyawali acknowledged that this convenience has also significantly increased user load.

“Many files are pending, and staff are working late hours to clear the backlog,” he said. “The office is taking service seekers’ complaints seriously.”

Penalty Framework ‘Fundamentally Flawed’

Legal expert Balram Aryal criticized the existing penalty framework, calling it fundamentally flawed.
“The very concept of penalties is problematic,” Aryal said. “Under the current model, fines are calculated cumulatively for each missed update, even if a company is trying to comply later.”

He explained that even if a company updates one requirement but misses another, late fees are imposed, and legally the government cannot easily waive such penalties without a special ordinance or formal cabinet decision.

Aryal added that server failures or technical issues do not automatically entitle service seekers to penalty exemptions. He also pointed out that the transition from the old system to the new structure has increased technical complications, and the system still fails to operate smoothly in real time.

At the same time, Aryal acknowledged shortcomings on the part of service seekers themselves. Many companies, he said, wait until the very last day—typically mid-January—to submit updates, causing a sudden spike in system usage.

“This situation is like a narrow bridge,” he said. “No one uses it all year, but when everyone tries to cross at once, the bridge cannot bear the load. Users get stuck midway and are then forced to pay penalties.”

According to Aryal, resolving the recurring crisis will require a combination of legal reforms, robust technical upgrades, and greater awareness among companies to avoid last-minute compliance rushes.