On April 6, the government promoted 873 officials to the posts of additional secretary, joint secretary, and deputy secretary in the Bangladesh Secretariat commonly known as “the seat of the government.”
Everybody would welcome the promotions of officials, provided they are made following the established rules and regulations in this regard. Two basic conditions for promotions are, a) the availability of vacant posts, and b) satisfactory service records of the aspirants. There was hardly any violation of these conditions not only during the Pakistan days but also in the first two decades of independent Bangladesh. But during the last 24 years or so, these conditions for promotions have been violated more than honoured.
Two major political parties, the BNP and the Awami League, have been ruling the country since the early 90s almost in successive politicised promotions to mid-level and senior-level posts in the administration. We first saw the large-scale politicisation of promotions to the different tiers of administration in early 1992. The mass upsurge against the autocratic rule of the Ershad government brought about its downfall in December 1990.
The BNP that came to power, following the national election of February 1991, promoted more than 700 officials of different cadres of Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) in order to draw their sympathy to the new government even though there were no approved vacant posts.
As a result, many of the promoted officials had to wait for a year or so as officers on special duty (OSD) in the then Ministry of Establishment (now Ministry of Public Administration). These OSD had to be paid their salaries and allowances in the enhanced scales even though they were not required to perform any work. This was a breach of administrative and financial discipline.
The AL that came to power in 1996 meticulously followed the practice initiated by the BNP government in promoting officials in the administration. After coming to power in 2001, the BNP-led four-party government changed the promotion rules more than once to facilitate promotion of those officers who served their political purpose or who had good connections with the right people. This happened even though there were no vacant posts.
The AL-led grand alliance that came to power in January 2009 following the national election of December 2008 did not take much time in promoting officials to the ranks of deputy secretary and above in the secretariat on political consideration. This was done without taking into consideration the availability of approved posts. For instance, on September 7, 2009 the government promoted 60 joint secretaries, 163 deputy secretaries, and 271 senior assistant secretaries to the posts of additional secretary, joint secretary, and deputy secretary respectively when there were no required vacancies in these posts.
The latest round of promotions on April 6 was no exception. Prior to the promotions, the officials in the three ranks outnumbered the vacant posts. The additional officials were either passing their days as OSD in the public administration ministry or were working in the positions held by them prior to their promotion.
According to the Dhaka Tribune’s April 7 issue, before these promotions, there were 1,280 deputy secretaries against 830 approved posts. The number of joint secretaries is 869 against 350 posts and additional secretaries of 229 against 120 posts.
What may happen now? There will be competition among the promoted officials to get postings and they will end up involved in politics. Those who will fail to get postings in the promoted duty posts will pass their idle days as OSD in the public administration ministry or will continue to work in the positions they were holding before promotions. Both the methods go against the long established administrative discipline.
Our constitution says that parliament may, by law, regulate the appointment and conditions of service of persons in the service of the Republic (Article 33). In the absence of such an Act of Parliament, the successive party governments in the past four decades have politicised appointments, promotions, and postings of government servants.
The AL-led alliance government that came to power in January 2009 said that it would enact a law in the parliament to regulate appointments, promotions, etc of officials in the administration. Even a draft law was prepared and comments were invited from the stakeholders and the people. But it did not see the light of day during the tenure of the AL-led alliance government. Enactment of the law has thus become uncertain.
The need for enacting a law to regulate appointments, promotions, and postings of government servants in the administration can hardly be over-emphasised. The enactment of an appropriate law will particularly mean a check on the “long arm” of the executive (ie the prime minister, ministers, state ministers, deputy ministers, and persons holding these ranks) to manipulate promotions in the administration.
This will help promote officials to higher posts in the administration on the basis of their efficiency, honesty, and seniority and prevent politicisation of the administration to a large extent. This will also lead to fulfilment of a constitutional obligation.
