The government is set to create two new post for secretaries in the Cabinet Division and the Ministry of Home Affairs, the two most vital wings of the government to supervise activities of the civil administration and the police, in order to ease the workload.
The Ministry of Public Administration has already finalised the procedure of creating the two new posts as per a recommendation from the secretary’s committee on administrative reform.
The Ministry of Finance has already approved the proposal of creating the post of secretary for the cabinet division and was now considering the proposal of creating a post for the home ministry, the officials of the public administration ministry confirmed the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
The government already has 71 secretary posts and some 20 posts equivalent to the status of secretaries. Of the 20 posts, there is one cabinet secretary, one principal secretary to the prime minister and 10 senior secretaries.
Among the senior secretaries, Dr Mohammad Tareque and Iqbal Mahmood have been working in abroad on lien.
Confirming the government’s decision to create the two new posts, State Minister for Public Administration Ismat Ara Sadique told the Dhaka Tribune that these two new posts will help ease the workload of the two big ministries and lessen the pressure on the cabinet secretary and home ministry’s senior secretary.
The junior minister also said that the decision was taken following a recommendation from the secretary’s committee on administrative reform and a high-power committee formed according to the decision of the cabinet meeting, led by the cabinet secretary, to create new posts and fill up the vacancies of the administration.
“The ministry has already got approval of the finance ministry to create a post of secretary for the cabinet division. Other procedures are also about to be completed. We will assign a secretary-level officer for the post shortly. But, it may take some time to create the post of secretary for the home ministry,” Ismat Ara said.
Terming the post of cabinet secretary as the most important post in the administration, she noted that the cabinet secretary faces a lot of workload everyday as he takes care of the division and had to attend numerous meetings as a member or as its chief. The home secretary has to face same pressure as he also looks after alot of divisions and departments.
“So, the government has taken the decision to assign two secretaries for the two important ministries to ease the workload on the cabinet secretary and senior secretary to the home ministry. We hope that it will reduce the pressure of the two top-level bureaucrats,” Ismat added.
Asked about the recommendation of the high power committee formed to create new posts and fill up the vacancies of the administration, the junior minister said, “As far as I know, they have met several times to find out the vacancies and suggested to the government to create new posts. But, we are yet to get any full recommendation.”