Four years over, govt yet to upgrade DEOs

The Election Commission still struggles to strengthen itself with adequate field level staff for establishing effective control over the electoral process, thanks to the continued bureaucratic tangle and the government's indifference towards the EC agenda.

"The Commission still does not have thana level staff of its own although 487 posts were created in 1995. We need our own people at the field level specially for establishing effective control over the electoral process," acting Chief Election Commissioner Mostaque Ahmed Chowdhury told The Daily Star Saturday.

"But we cannot recruit thana level officials until the post of our district level officer is upgraded. The Commission has been awaiting government approval in this regard for more than four years now."

In the absence of EC staff, the Assistant Commissioner (Land) discharges the responsibilities of than level election officers.

The Commission managed to get its proposal to create 487 posts of Thana Election Officers (TEOs) approved by the government of Khaleda Zia in 1995. Her government also agreed to provide two other staff including a stenographer for each of the TEOs and allocated necessary funds for implementing the plan in fiscal 1995-96.

While putting forward the proposal for TEOs, the EC wanted them to be placed in grade IX of the national pay scale, 'keeping in mind that the post of District Election Officer (DEO) would be upgraded'. The DEOs were and still are grade IX officers.

After getting government approval to have the TEOs in grade IX, the EC wrote to the authorities concerned in May 1995 for upgrading the post of DEO from grade IX to grade VI. The Commission noted that the DEOs would have supervisory authority over the TEOs. "So the status and pay of district level officers must be higher than those of their than level colleagues," it argued.

In 1995, the pay scale applicable for DEOs (grade-IX) was Tk 2,850-Tk 5,155 while the pay scale for district level officers of other government departments was Tk 4,800-Tk 7,250 at the minimum. The EC, it appears, wanted to place DEOs in grade VI which is equivalent to that of district level officials getting the lowest pay scale.

However, the EC proposal for upgrading the post of DEO reached the Ministry of Establishment in May 1995. But the ministry took more than three years to be convinced that the status of DEOs should be higher than that of TEOs.

Recommending this, the Establishment ministry referred the matter to the Finance Ministry in November 1998, observing 'it is the Finance Division that can take a decision on change of pay scale'.

The matter eventually went to a cabinet committee headed by Finance Minister SAMS Kibria for approval. But the committee has not yet taken it up.

Meanwhile, two meetings of the cabinet committee have been postponed. The first meeting was scheduled for November 10, 1999 but it was not held as the finance minister was abroad. The second meeting scheduled for January 6 this year also did not take place. "We came to know about the postponement only a few hours before the meeting was scheduled to be held," a top Election Commission official said.

This time Kibria was in town. But he 'was neither aware of the meeting nor its postponement.' "Well, I would call a meeting some time this month. But I cannot say what would happen to the EC proposal as it involves money," he told The Daily Star Saturday night.

"It is very important for us to have our own officials at than level as the volume of work as well as responsibilities of the EC have increased over the last few years, let alone the need for greater control over the polling process," said the acting Chief Election Commissioner. "But if we recruit them before upgrading of the post of district election officer, there would be no chain of command."

There are 83 posts of DEO in 64 districts. Some districts with larger areas and population have more than one post. Presently, 17 posts are lying vacant.

Upgrading the post of DEO is very important for other reasons, specially to enable them to effectively coordinate election management that involves other district level government officials.

While arguing for upgrading, the EC Secretariat said that the district election officers 'face problems when they need to coordinate election related work done by other district level officers'. In this regard, the EC pointed out that the status of other district level officers is much higher than that of the district election officers.

"To be honest, other district level officers give a damn to us when we seek cooperation or make attempts to coordinate their duties during elections," said a DEO. "The reason is simple, they are higher grade officers."

The present status of DEOs, both in terms of grade and salary, is much lower than that of all other district level officers. Even most of the than level officers enjoy higher status and salary than them. The status of DEOs (Grade IX in the national pay scale: Tk 4300-Tk 7740) is equivalent only to that of than level education officers.

At the district level, there is an agriculture officer, a livestock officer, a fisheries officer, an executive engineer (LGED) and a deputy director (Education). All of them are in grade V with the pay scale of Tk 9,500-Tk 12,100.

Besides, there is a relief and rehabilitation officer in each district. Of them, 20 per cent belong to grade VI with the pay scale of Tk 7,200-Tk 10,840 and 80 per cent belong to grade VII with Tk 6,150-Tk 9,750 pay scale.

District education officers and district primary education officers belong to grade VII with the pay scale of Tk 6,150-Tk 9,750.

At the thana level, there is an agriculture officer, a livestock officer, a fisheries officer, a deputy director (Youth Development), an assistant director (Education), headmasters (Education) and school inspectors (Education). All of them belong to grade VI having the pay scale of Tk 7,200-Tk 10,840.

This shows that even if the government eventually approves the EC proposal for upgrading the post of DEO to grade-VI, the problems faced by DEOs in coordinating election activities of other district level officials would hardly be removed.

Additional Secretary of the EC Secretariat Aziz Ahmed Chowdhury is, however, optimistic about it to some extent. "Let us upgrade the post to grade VI first. Things would then improve gradually."

The association of DEOs is, however, demanding grade V.