8 years as secy but no work

Around eight years ago, Md Ebadot Ali was promoted to acting secretary. But he was made an officer on special duty (OSD) on October 10, 2011 when he was discharging his duties as the acting secretary at the-then Railway Division under the communication ministry.

Yet, in a rare move in the civil bureaucracy, Ebadot got a promotion two months later and became the secretary despite being an OSD.

Since then, he didn't have to work on anything and didn't even need to go to his office regularly.

But Ebadot Ali got his monthly salary -- Tk 78,000 -- on time. He also got three festival bonuses every year, a fulltime ministry car, residential benefit, medical facilities, travel allowance, entertainment allowance, allowance for his children's education, telephone bill and a domestic aide.

Besides, he got many other facilities paid for by the taxpayers for the last seven years, three months and 11 days.

And Ebadot goes on Post-Retirement Leave (PRL) today as an OSD.

He will enjoy the same benefits, excluding entertainment and phone allowance, for the next one year.

He will not get any reception though, something which a secretary usually gets on their last working day from the officials of the ministry.

Ebadot was made OSD by the Ministry of Public Administration following a recommendation of the communication ministry. But the reason for the change was not mentioned in the office order.

Generally, an OSD has no other duty except for attending office and signing the attendance register. Civil bureaucrats are made OSDs usually because of political reasons or personal enmity.

Normally, a bureaucrat needs at least 25 years to be promoted as a secretary after getting several promotions. They also need to receive training from home and abroad, which requires a lot of public money.

Although an OSD officer needs to show up at the public administration ministry to collect bills, no chair and table is allocated for him. OSD officials are used to spending time at the ministry library, said sources.

Contacted, Ebadot refused to make any comment as he was still a serving officer.

According to sources, around 500 officials now have OSD status.

Former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder told The Daily Star that making a serving officer an OSD was not a good practice.

“It was not proper to waste a huge amount of public money, by making a secretary an OSD for a long period,” he said.

Ebadot, who hails from Pabna, joined civil bureaucracy after passing the regular BCS in 1982. During his career, Ebadot served as the joint secretary in the defence and home ministry. He was a member of the Tariff Commission and DC of Sirajganj during his long career.