Promotions beyond vacant posts create imbalance

About 100 newly promoted additional secretaries continue to occupy their previous seats in the same offices as promotions were given beyond sanctioned posts creating an imbalance in the civil bureaucracy.

In the latest move, the government on September 26 promoted 98 joint secretaries mostly belonging to the 13th BCS batch to the rank of additional secretary although there were already 565 additional secretaries against 120 posts for them in the approved organogram. 

Retired and serving civil servants said that some posts were upgraded, more Grade-I posts and posts of senior secretaries were created in recent years to accommodate promotions at the senior level above the organogram.

But they also observed that solutions on ‘piecemeal basis’ were affecting inter-cadre equilibrium in the administration composed of 28 cadre services. 

They said that the pyramid like structure of the organogram turning reverse with the top becoming heavy with officers beyond posts.

Consequently, in most cases high-ranking officers like joint secretaries or additional secretaries are doing the job of a director or a mid-ranking officer earlier held by a deputy secretary, a retired secretary observed. 

‘The fundamentals in the promotion policy are availability of posts and eligibility of the aspirants. Promotions beyond posts increase expenditure and this is also wastage of manpower as a senior officer has to do the jobs of a junior,’ retired bureaucrat and governance campaigner M Hafizuddin Khan told New Age.

He said that a pressure group emerged in the administration who tried to please the ruling quarters and get promoted, no matter whether there were vacant posts for them.

‘This cannot be any administrative policy. No personnel management system should be like this. In our time, we did not even have additional secretaries in all ministries,’ he added.

Hafizuddin, also former caretaker government adviser, observed such promotions without vacancies were creating anarchy and was also adversely affecting inter-cadre harmony as officials of the same batch in the Bangladesh Civil Service were not promoted at the same pace.

At least 83 newly promoted additional secretaries out of 98 made officers on special duty at the public administration ministry on their promotions have either been attached to their previous ministries/divisions or  made ‘in-situ’ at the agencies they were serving in the last few days on their promotions.

Many of them were already doing jobs below their ranks, according to officials.

A senior official, who worked at the Appointment, Posting and Deputation Wing of the public administration ministry, said that the promotion becomes meaningless if those promoted are not given higher responsibilities besides higher pays. 

Before promotions as additional secretary Mohammad Wahiduzzaman was a director at Land Record and Survey Department and Nazmul Ahsan was a director at Petrobangla. Both of them were asked to work in their immediate past workplaces as is the case with most others, according to an official order. 

State minister for public administration Farhad Hossain said that around 300 additional secretaries could be accommodated in the present structure due to post upgradation and expansion of the government activities in recent years.

‘Most of the newly promoted additional secretaries have been asked to work in their previous places as they were not given any new postings. But this is not a permanent arrangement as we had to consider requests for the continuation of many good officers in their previous workplaces,’ he told New Age.

It would take some time to return to a normal situation as the number of additional secretaries crossed 600 last year due to some large batches, said the junior minister, adding that some of them already retired.  

‘We are now working on career planning for officers, which would help improve the situation,’ he hoped, saying that they would recruit officers in a planned way so that they did not face similar situation in future. 

In October 2019, the government promoted a total to 156 joint secretaries to the rank of additional secretary. And before that in August, 2018, the government promoted a total of 154 joint secretaries to the rank of additional secretaries.

In the civil administration, the deputy secretaries outnumbered the senior assistant secretaries while the number of joint secretaries is more than double the number of sanctioned posts. 

At present, there are 749 joint secretaries against 350 posts, 1633 deputy secretaries against 830 posts while the number of senior assistant secretaries is 1567, according to the official data updated on September 30.

The present structure could accommodate around 1600 senior assistant secretaries, public administration ministry officials said. 

The number of secretaries including senior secretaries is 76 beside 12 Grade-I posts for officials of the same rank.

Due to post upgradation, maximum 400 joint secretaries and around 1300 deputy secretaries could now be accommodated to their respective levels while others promoted beyond vacancies had to work in their previous positions, said the officials.  

Former Bangladesh Bank governor Mohammed Farashuddin-led National Pay and Service Commission in its report in 2015 said that some upgradations of posts were made at the top and lower levels in the public administration on piecemeal basis creating scopes for creating an imbalance at different levels.

The commission suggested setting up a commission under the Cabinet Division for administrative restructuring and reforms to protect inter-cadre equilibrium.

But no move was taken so far on the pay commission’s report excepting the salary hike of the public servants, according to senior officials.  

The state minister said that recruitments would be made in keeping with the career development plan for smooth functioning of the administration and this would also ensure better personnel management. 

About the pay commission’s suggestion, Farhad Hossain said that the government would soon replace the outdated ACR (annual confidential report) system with APR (annual performance report) to bring transparency in performance evaluation and qualitative changes in the administration.  

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net