Public Service Act: Committee to be formed to review draft

The secretary-level committee on administrative reforms has decided to form a committee to further review the draft Public Service Act-2017 before finalising it.

The public administration ministry submitted the draft law to the secretary-level committee during a meeting at the secretariat yesterday. Cabinet Secretary Shafiul Alam chaired the meeting.

The committee was supposed to finalise the draft as all other procedures regarding it had been completed.

Contacted, the cabinet secretary said a decision had been made to form a committee to further scrutinise the draft law.

A public administration ministry official said Sohorab Hossain, secretary of the secondary and higher secondary education division, would lead the committee.

According to the draft law, the president will be able to make 10 percent of the appointments to four superior posts of public administration from outside the civil service considering their “special merit, skill, eligibility and essentiality” if the proposed law is approved.

A provision has been incorporated in the draft as a “special jurisdiction of the president” under which people can be appointed to the four posts from outside “public servants eligible for regular appointments”.

The Awami League, government soon after assuming office in 2009, took an initiative to frame a comprehensive law for government officials.

The draft law was first placed before the cabinet in 2015. The cabinet approved it in principle but sent it back to the ministry with some observations.

In November last year, the draft was again placed in the cabinet which sent it to the secretary-level committee on administrative reforms with some directives for holding discussion on the draft law.

An inter-ministerial meeting was held in December last year on the proposed law. The stakeholders there discussed different provisions of the draft and gave their opinions.

The public administration ministry incorporated the opinions and sent it to the secretary-level committee on administrative reforms for approval.