Government promotes 193 officials to joint secretaries

The government has promoted 193 deputy secretaries and officials of equivalent ranks to joint secretaries even though there are no permanent posts for them at present. They have been attached to the Ministry of Public Administration as officers on special duty (OSDs). The ministry issued two gazette notifications in this regard on Thursday night. With these promoted officials, the number of joint secretaries now stands at 842, against 450 designated posts, according to data from the ministry. On December 11, the government had also promoted 128 joint secretaries to additional secretaries, taking the number of additional secretaries to 562 – over four times the maximum number of 130 recommended by the Ministry of Public Administration.In April this year, the government promoted 267 senior assistant secretaries to deputy secretaries. Five months before that, 536 public servants were promoted in three categories — additional secretary, joint secretary and deputy secretary.

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Around 217 officials were also promoted in May 2016 while in 2015, the government promoted 873 officials in the same posts. During its previous tenure, between 2009 and 2013, the Awami League government promoted a total of 2,528 officers in phases. Public administration experts have said that the government was flouting the standard pyramidal structure for a bureaucratic organisation as the recent mass promotions of civil servants have far exceeded quotas for their mid-level posts. The experts also attributed the burgeoning bureaucracy to a concerted effort to keep government officials happy ahead of the elections, and to a desire to reward officials who are politically aligned with the government. But they warned that such methods were not always productive for a political government as the unusual – and in some cases functionless – promotions also lead to discontent among the officials and a breakdown in the chain of command.Bangla Tribune contributed to this article