ANOTHER large-scale mass promotion in the civil bureaucracy is set to take effect putting the last nail on the coffin of the already near dead public administration dominated by party loyalists. A report carried in an English daily on Wednesday said, though no vacancies exist in the approved civil bureaucracy organogram, yet several hundred officers are going to be promoted to the levels of deputy secretary, joint secretary and additional secretary. No surprise outbursts have appeared over the decision, as the government wants some more loyal bureaucrats who will serve only the party interest, not the republic or its people.
Reports have it that the Superior Selection Board led by the Cabinet Secretary is scrutinising the profiles of the aspirants to prepare lists of senior assistant secretaries, deputy secretaries and joint secretaries for promotion to higher grades. And many officers have already started lobbying the policymakers i.e. political passes, for promotion and some of those loyal to the ruling quarters were submitting demi-official letters from Ministers seeking favour from the Selection Board. Interesting to note that there are already 1,287 deputy secretaries against 830 approved posts, 896 joint secretaries against 350 posts and 267 additional secretaries against 120 approved posts. Precisely speaking, the civil bureaucracy is already ‘top heavy’ by structure. This is the first move for large-scale promotions in the administration after the ruling Awami League took office last year for the second consecutive term.
Bureaucracy, as it is today, in Bangladesh has proved contrary to its norms. When the country needs a smart government (political) capable to deliver ‘ good governance’ for that we need a permanent government (that is bureaucracy) which is competent, capable, well-educated, meritorious, impartial (not apathetic to public), non-political, honest and reasonably sympathetic, but in practice, the brilliants and promising ones have been superseded or neglected or pushed back to the wall on the grounds of ‘not being politically loyal’ (or on the doubt of being sympathetic to the opposition). They are often made OSD. It is nothing but just another wastage of human resources.
However, this mass promotion on political lines (through lobbing) will make the bureaucracy a more ‘top heavy’ one meaning tax-payers will have to pay more for the perks and packages for the bureaucrats holding higher posts. But this mass- promotion to the bureaucracy, as the critics said, is to be considered as paying back for the loyalty shown (and services provided) during Jan 05 (2014) polls and obtaining further assurance of loyalty and service(s) in coming days at the cost of nation. Though, it offers gains for short-while, but no doubt, it fails in the long run. We ask the policy makers to consider such rewards again for the sake of a brilliant bureaucracy. Otherwise, the government itself will have to bear the pain of ‘neo- Awami Leaguers’ in the civil bureaucracy.
