Work takes back seat at secretariat

Nearly 800 senior civil bureaucrats, mostly in the secretariat, had no work yesterday as they were made officers on special duty (OSD) and attached to the public administration ministry after their promotion on Monday night.

Many of them will have no specific work today either, as the public administration ministry has yet to issue orders determining their status.

The wholesale promotion of 873 officials dominated discussions at the secretariat, the country's administrative hub, throughout yesterday. The bureaucrats, not in a mood to work, exchanged greetings and debated who else should have been promoted and who should not have.

Yesterday, the public administration ministry issued orders to the 20 deputy commissioners and three divisional commissioners who got promotion to remain in their existing positions and perform the same duty. More such orders are expected to be issued to most of the promoted officials. 

The government has no other option but to do so because the large-scale promotion was given when there was no vacant post in the civil administration. This means, these officials will continue to do the same old job but will be paid more, which many see as “not honourable”.

In one of the biggest promotion sprees, theses officials were elevated to the rank of deputy secretary, joint secretary and additional secretary. Of them, 231 joint secretaries were made additional secretaries, 299 deputy secretaries were elevated to the rank of joint secretary and 343 senior assistant secretaries to the post of deputy secretary.

The immediate big challenge for the government is to distribute posts among them.

At present, the civil bureaucracy is dominated by the administration cadre. Of the promoted officials, 680 are from this cadre of already 5,000 officials. The rest 193 are from 26 other cadres of 27,000 odd officials.

Reactions to the promotion have been mixed. Some officials are happy for themselves but disappointed for their “deprived” colleagues. Others are frustrated that many got the promotion not because of their merit but because of strong lobby. 

“I got promotion but these two [of my colleagues] didn't, although they deserved it,” said an official, now posted at the disaster management ministry.

Standing by him was one of his colleagues, who said: “I have been deprived thrice now. This is embarrassing and I am not going to continue with the service anymore.”

Several others questioned the method and the basis of the promotion. “There are no specific criteria. Lobby and link with the powerful quarters is the key these days,” one of them said.

The picture was similar at different ministries.

Merit and performance are supposed to be the basis of promotion, but political lobbying and loyalty to the ruling party seem to have played a key role in the latest promotion.

There are allegations that a good number of officials, including those known for their links with Jamaat-Shibir, secured promotion through lobby, sources said, a claim this newspaper could not verify.

Officials linked with Jamaat-Shibir maintain so strong a lobby that they always manage to get promotion, although many officials affiliated with BNP politics fail to do so, claimed the sources.

The Superior Selection Board (SSB) headed by Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan prepared the list of officials for promotion after going through their service records and Annual Confidential Reports. Officers facing departmental proceedings are not considered for promotion.

In recent years, whenever a selection process began, potential candidates started meeting influential officials. They also lobbied through ministers and secretaries for promotion.

Some officials at the Prime Minister's Office and top Awami League leaders also work as lobbyist, sources alleged.

Once finalised, the SSB sends the list to the PM for approval. Also being the minister for public administration, she can scrutinise the list and include or exclude anyone.

“Once the list is in the PMO, the officers who are not on it begin to lobby hard for having their names included. This has happened in the latest round of promotion,” an official of the public administration ministry told The Daily Star yesterday.

Originally, the SSB had sent a list of 750 for promotion. But when the list came out of the PMO, it had 873 names on it. “Only a few of deserving officials managed to get on the list,” said the official, seeking anonymity.

The civil bureaucracy has turned top-heavy with excessive promotion in the last six years. The Awami League government in its previous tenure gave promotion to about 2,500 officials. And the trend continued in the new term.

A number of officials said the promotion was a payback for the officials who served the “political purposes” of the government before and after last year's January 5 parliamentary elections.

The wholesale promotion will push up the number of OSDs.

 Contacted, former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder termed unjustified the wholesale promotion. “The acceptable policy is to give promotion against vacant posts in the interest of the state, not for anyone's personal interest.”

He said an official is supposed to have new offices and duties after his or her promotion.

But in the present case, the officials will be doing the same old job which, in a sense, is “disgraceful” for an official, he added.

Senior Secretary to the public administration ministry Kamal Abdul Naser, who had a key role in giving promotion, claimed the promotion was given on the basis of merit and performance.

“There are specific reasons regarding those who did not get promotion,” he told reporters at the secretariat.

Abdus Sobhan Sikder, who went on leave preparatory for retirement (LRP) recently as principal secretary to the PMO, said the promotion was given through proper scrutiny.

There is no scope of creating so many posts, but the officials deserved promotion as they have been serving for 20 years and more, he added.

But there are instances that posts of non-admin cadres remain vacant for years. This discrimination has caused serious resentment among them as many brilliant officers don't get promotion and serve in the same post for even 15 years.

As a result, frustration grips a large chunk of officials after every mass promotion. They are gradually losing interest in discharging their duties, many officials said.

A move to promote officials to the rank of deputy secretary through a mandatory exam was underway. This could stop malpractice and discrimination, but the move has been shelved.