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.Also Read- A disproportionately-shaped public administration
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
