Public sector employees will soon use a self-service online form to submit their personal data into a database that will allow their salaries, under the National Pay Scale 2015, to be fixed and confirmed online, official sources said.
The proposed database and online fixing of salaries is being described as a boon to transparency and an aid to record-keeping.
The compilation of a database of the country’s 2.1 million public sector employees and online fixing of their salaries was approved by Finance Minister AMA Muhith before he left for World Bank–IMF meetings in Washington, DC and Lima, Peru, a Finance Division official said.
The finance minister’s summary of the proposal called the database an “excellent system … [that] will make the government more accountable and transparent.”
“The new system also creates a good database of civil servants and I enthusiastically approve the online fixing of public servants’ salaries,” the summary read.
“We have procured two servers to create more data storage space and software is currently being developed to handle public servants’ salary data online,” the Finance Division official added.
According to the proposal signed by Senior Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed, civil servants will have to fill out an online form and post their personal data into the database.
The required fields include the official’s name and position, site of employment, joining date of current job, promotion date, present salary grade and basic salary.
The system does away with common data-entry errors, according to the proposal.
The information submitted online will then be verified by accounts offices, which will then finalise and fix civil servants’ salaries and inform them online.
Public servants in remote parts of the country will have to send their information via the internet, according to the proposal.
Under the World Bank-funded “Strengthening Government Expenditure Management System Project,” some 450,000 civil servants’ personal data has already been entered into a government database, but the list contains errors.
The proposed database is expected to aid government accountants because information about salaries, allowances, pensions, loans and advances will be easily accessible.
Additional funds will be needed to train accountants, officials and government staff to use the new system, the proposal added.
