A large number of second-class public servants have failed to get promotion in regular vacant posts despite mass promotion in the civil bureaucracy.
At present, about 2000-2200 second-class public servants are serving at the Bangladesh Secretariat at the post of Administrative Officers (AO) and Personal Officers (PO).
Sources said, many of them have failed to get their due promotion even after serving 22 -23 years in the same posts.
According to the government rules, second-class public servants are entitle to get promotion after 7-12 years of their service against vacant posts. They should be elevated to the post of Assistant Secretary.
“We are being deprived of promotion for a long time. We’re frustrated by the overdue promotion,” an Administrative Office at the Ministry of Youth and Sports told The New Nation yesterday on condition of anonymity.
The Public Administration Ministry sent a promotion proposal to Public Service Commission (PSC) on May 29 this year against the 78 vacant posts of Assistant Secretaries.
Receipt upon the proposal, the PSC in a letter to the Ministry of Public Administration sought some queries on June 6 this year. The concerned section of the Ministry prepared a file replying the PSC’s queries and submitted it to the Secretary on July 11 for his approval. “But he is yet to sign the file hanging the promotion process in balance,” said a deprived official.
He said the file got stuck in the office of the secretary from July 11 creating disappointment among the officials who are in the promotion list.
Faiz Ahmed, Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration could not be reached for comment.
“We are deprived of getting due promotion for long whereas promotion spree is on in the admin cadre service. Officials of admin cadre service are getting frequent promotion without vacant posts,” a frustrated Personal Officer told The New Nation, seeking anonymity.
Public Administration Ministry promoted 450 admin cadre service officials to the post of Additional Secretary against 121 sanctioned posts. It promoted 1759 cadre service officials to Deputy Secretary in 1006 sanctioned posts while 780 officials promoted to Joint Secretary against 411 sanctioned posts.
“When such a scenario is prevailing in cadre service, we’re waiting for promotion to the next higher rank for years. This is a discriminatory policy which undermines efficiency of the administration as well as efficiency the second-class public servants,” said an official at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
He said the delayed and irregular promotion process of the second-class public servants is also going against the government’s National integrity System (NIS) that introduced to address governance deficits, corruption and dysfunctional aspects of public institutions and watchdog bodies.
“The government should take the issue into cognizance for maintain dynamism and professionalism in public service,” he added.
Second-class public servants also demanded promotion on the basis of seniority, merit, skill and competence of an officer serving in the civil administration.
