Officials and staff from two key government offices have worked together for years in a four-story building at the secretariat. Now, even after moving into newly constructed 20- and 15-story buildings, they are struggling with a space crunch.
For over a month, disputes over floor allocation have led to tensions between the two sides, damaging long-standing cordial relationships among officials.
The offices in conflict are the ministry of public administration and the cabinet division. The buildings – one with 20 floors and the other with 15 – were officially inaugurated on 12 May, and are connected, with floor-to-floor access between them.
The housing and public works ministry said it is trying to distribute the buildings equally between the two offices. However, both sides are sticking to their respective positions.
According to sources and on-the-ground visits, officials from both sides are spending more time in meetings and exchanging letters over space allocation than on regular official duties.
The public administration ministry alleged that the allocated space is not proportional to its workforce, and that the cabinet division has taken over more space than it deserves. On the flip side, the cabinet division claimed that they received space as per allocations made by the previous cabinet secretary, Khandker Anwarul Islam.
The public administration officials alleged that the cabinet division received a larger share of the new buildings due to Khandker Anwarul’s influence. They have been objecting to this from the beginning.
Khandker Anwarul served as cabinet secretary from 2019 to 2022. He could not be reached on 21 June, to learn about his perspective on the dispute.
Fewer staff, more space
According to cabinet division sources, in 2018, the government approved a project for constructing a new 20-story office building at the secretariat, with an estimated cost of Tk 4.61 billion. Under the project, two buildings – one with 20 stories, the other with 15 – were constructed, with a shared basement for parking 66 vehicles.
The unequal size of the buildings is the root of the problem. Officials said this controversy could have been avoided had both buildings been 20 stories.
According to the housing and public works ministry, the cabinet division occupies the first to the 13th floors, while the public administration ministry has been allocated the 14th to the 20th floors.
The cabinet division occupies 171,590 square feet, while the public administration has been allocated 132,000 square feet.
The buildings were constructed under the supervision of the housing and public works ministry, which is responsible for maintaining all government infrastructure. To resolve the space allocation dispute, the ministry’s secretary, Nazrul Islam, held a meeting with all stakeholders last month.
During the meeting, it was discussed that floors 5, 6, 9, and 11 house four conference rooms, while floor 13 contains an auditorium—all of which are under the cabinet division’s control. As a result, the public administration ministry has to use the old auditorium in the building-1 of the secretariat for any meetings or seminars.
In that meeting, the cabinet division was asked to hand over the 13th floor to the public administration ministry. However, they refused and instead offered the 11th floor, which the public administration ministry declined.