Two years have passed since the new organogram (organisational chart) of the Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) was placed before the ministry concerned but the government has not yet finalised it.
CAAB officials were hopeful of having it finalised before this month but no effective step was taken by the government.
The new organogram consists of around 7,045 new civil aviation employees divided into 17 grades.
Top CAAB officials believe the existing organogram is not well-structured, with two of the categories remaining unfilled.
Grade 1 and grade 8 posts have remained vacant since the organogram came into being. Officials proposed upgrading the post of chairman to grade 1 from grade 2 in order to fill the category but no decision concerning grade 8 was taken. The grades range from one to nine, including first-class staff, chairman, director, chief engineer and others.
Earlier on February 8 2012, the authorities sent a proposal for the new organogram of around 13,776 employees to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism. The ministry, however, revised the draft organogram and reduced the number of the employees to 10,602 in April this year.
On April 13, CAAB sent the draft to the Ministry of Public Administration seeking approval. If approved, it would then be sent to the Ministry of Finance for another approval.
CAAB Director (administration) GM Abdul Quader said: “At present, we have 3,557 employees under 17 grades.”
“Federal Aviation Administration of America placed us in category 2 because of the manpower shortage. Unless the new organogram is approved, we are unable to resume direct flight between Dhaka and New York,” he added.
Around 1,100 Armed Police Battalion officials and 1,000 Ansar members have been maintaining security at the airports. In the new organogram, recruitment of another 2,500 security guards has been proposed to ensure additional safety.
CAAB member (operations and planning) Air Commodore M Shafiqul Alam told the Dhaka Tribune: “Around 100 aircrafts land at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport daily while the number was less in the past. We need extra staff to cope with the increased workload. We have also formulated a draft recruitment rule.”
CAAB Airworthiness Consultant Pranay Kumar Biswas said: “We now have a mere four to five airworthiness officers and this is not enough. The number of airports has grown and more manpower has become the necessity.”
CAAB Assistant Director Nurul Islam expressed concern that the ministry would want to reduce the number of proposed manpower.
He said: “If the organogram is approved this year, recruitment will start from 2015. It is not possible to recruit around 7,000 officials at once. We will recruit for 15 years while 1,000 will be recruited in the first year.”
On February 13 this year, a meeting was held with officials of the Public Administration Ministry and it was led by Aktari Mamtaz, additional secretary (development & medical education) of the Health Ministry.
“At the meeting, CAAB officials explained why they need additional staff but we have more queries. Once we get the answers, another meeting will be held,” said Aktari.
“It is a time-consuming process,” she added.