Staff Reporter :An angry Finance Minister AMA Muhith has brought back the official order of the eighth Pay Scale from the Law Ministry for further reviewing.According to Finance Ministry officials on Thursday, it has ultimately saved the government from a deep-rooted conspiracy which could create a face-to-face conflicting situation with the civil servants.The Pay Commission had proposed the government to omit Time Scale and Selection Grade. The Secretary-level Committee also kept it untouched. So, discontent raised among the government officials and employees. In this situation, the Finance Minister took initiatives to find an ‘alternative way’ after discussing the matter with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.A competent source of the Finance Ministry said, several recommendations from the Finance Minister were not included in the official order [pay scale] due to the ‘mysterious’ stance of an Additional Secretary of the Implementation Wing.According to the alternative proposal, a government service holder would be eligible for higher grade, if he reached at the highest step of his professional career. In that case, a government service holder would be considered as suitable candidate after his expiry in the same grade for ten years.Official sources said, Finance Minister AMA Muhith went to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly and annual meeting of International Monitoring Fund after finalising the ‘alternative proposal’ and ordered the Implementation Wing of the Finance Ministry to send it to Law Minister for vetting. But ignoring the directives of Finance Minister, the Implementation Wing of the Finance Ministry sent the pay scale file to the Law Ministry for vetting. The angry Finance Minister directed the concerned officials to bring back the file whether his directives have been incorporated or not.The situation started getting tensed when the news of vetting from Law Ministry omitting Finance Minister’s alternative pay scale spread quickly among the civil servants and other government employees.Meanwhile, fearing the wrath of Finance Minister, the said additional secretary went on a leave all in a sudden from Thursday. A total of 306 officials of the 24th BCS recruitment batch have been enjoying time scale and selection grade benefits from July 2. But no government employees would be entitled to these benefits, if the new pay scale is implemented with a retrospective affect from June 30. In fact, it ignited discontent among the government officials. And so, after the finalisation of new pay scale on September 7 without two provisions — time scale and selection grade — a section of government employees have been demanding not to change these provisions.Although Senior Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed earlier expressed possibility of publishing gazette notification for the new pay scale in the first week of November, it is yet not sure when the final order would come. The Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina endorsed the eighth pay scale for civil servants with a minimum basic salary of Tk 8,250 and maximum Tk 86,000.
