Mass promotion awaits officials
The government is set to promote around 700 civil servants to the ranks of deputy, joint and additional secretary although an excessive number of government officials is already holding mid-level positions in the civil administration.
The Ministry of Public Administration on Tuesday sent a summary to the Prime Minister's Office, suggesting names of the officials for promotion.
“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is in charge of the ministry, is expected to approve the summary anytime soon. Circulations on the promotion are also supposed to be issued soon,” said a senior official of the ministry.
“The prime minister may be scrutinising the names before giving her approval,” added the official, asking not to be named.
It will be the first large-scale promotion in the civil administration since the Awami League-led government has retained power through the January 5 parliamentary elections. Few days after the election, seventy deputy secretaries have been promoted to the post of joint secretary.
According to the summary sent to the PM, around 300 senior assistant secretaries would be promoted to the post of deputy secretary, 250 deputy secretaries to joint secretary and 155 joint secretaries to the rank of additional secretary.
Presently, there are already 1,280 deputy secretaries against 830 approved posts in the formal structure of the civil administration while the number of joint secretaries is 869 against 350 posts and additional secretaries is 229 against 120 posts.
Sources in the public administration ministry said usually promotion is given against a vacant post.
The Superior Selection Board (SSB) led by Cabinet Secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan has taken interviews of the prospective officials in the last two months and gone through their career records to prepare a list of officials to be considered for promotion.
After finalising lists of around 700 civil servants from various batches out of 1,700 aspirants, the SSB has sent the list to the prime minister seeking her approval.
However, sources in the secretariat said excessive promotion has already made the civil administration top-heavy.
They also said posting and transfer of officials have become very difficult as no vacancy is left in the civil bureaucracy. This tendency is also responsible for making many bureaucrats OSD (officers on special duty).
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