Government recruitment reforms

THE Public Service Commission (PSC) being the largest recruiting agency for the largest employer i.e. the state there is need to regularly incorporate reforms to keep it attuned to the requirement of the time. It is heartening to note that there are recommended changes in the employment procedures of the Commission awaiting government approval.
However, it appears from the recent report on the matter in The Daily Star that the PSC has not made any recommendation on the present quota system. We feel that the government must reconsider the 55 percent quota system that is currently in vogue. While there is considerable merit in allotting quota for various disadvantaged groups in society, the downside of it is that it can breed mediocrity at the cost of quality alongside opening the scope for misuse of the system, as we have seen happen in the past
Needless to say, we would like to see the best of the nation's merit join the public service. And the only criterion in that case must be merit and merit alone. Quality must not be sacrificed for any another consideration. Unfortunately, recruitment on quota system remains a discriminatory arrangement against meritorious candidates.
The system of having only 45 percent of the candidates selected on merit while 55 percent being set aside for the four categories, namely, freedom fighters, women, disadvantaged districts and indigenous people, deserves review of the government.
While there are good reasons for keeping ten percent reserved seats for women and five percent for the indigenous people, and we understand the sentiments behind allowing quota for the freedom fighters there is yet scope for reconsidering the 33 percent quota for the freedom fighters and ten percent for disadvantaged districts. Our reason for saying so is that, the system has been misused for corruption, political patronization and as a means to politicise the state machinery by filling these positions by those of the same political ilk of the party that runs the government of the day, unfortunately, at the cost of merit and quality.
The need is for a knowledge-based society, particularly when the world is becoming a global village, increasingly dependent on knowledge and intelligence that would be capable of exploiting information technology for national development. Such a situation, we fear, cannot emerge if the present system is continued.
We also cannot overlook the fact that these recruits will be directly involved in governance which essentially means managing scant resources of the state. Undeserving people selected on partisan considerations, as happened in the last 15 years of political government, can hardly be capable of ensuring that.