Public admin busy with promotions, postings; order yet to be restored

Discipline is yet to be restored in the public administration, a month after the interim government was formed. Officials remain busy with promotions, postings at important ministries and and as deputy commissioners (DC). Officials gather in front of the public administration ministry at the secretariat almost every day, lobbying for their various demands.

In the meantime, 50-60 deputy secretaries could not become DCs, created a hullabaloo at the Appointment Promotion and Deputation Wing of the public administration ministry on Tuesday afternoon. They then went to the cabinet secretary and left upon the assurance from the cabinet secretary that the two gazettes issued in the past two days appointing the DCs would be revoked.

Uncertainty still prevails in the field administration, bringing various administrative operations to a standstill. New DCs were appointed in 25 districts on 9 September and 35 districts on 10 September.

Other than the administration cadre, officials and employees are also demonstrating at various government offices and agencies including Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla), Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and Office of Comptroller and Auditor General, disrupting the official activities.

Public administration experts said the administration never felt such pressure in 53 years since independence because massive partisan and ignoring meritocracy in appointment over the past 15 years created a disorder in the administration, and it will take time to overcome this situation.

According to public administration sources, the secretary posts of seven ministries and divisions are still vacant due to cancelling contractual appointments and making OSD (officer on special duty), putting their operations on hold.

After the formation of the interim government, the first phase of promotion in the public administration happened on 13 August with 117 senior assistant secretaries being promoted to the rank of joint secretary, followed by promoting 223 joint secretaries to the rank of deputy secretary within a week. After that, 131 joint secretaries were promoted to the rank of additional secretary on 25 August. Altogether, in the interim government promoted 471 officers so far since 8 August.

A review of the gazettes issued by the public administration showed that 24 officers were promoted from the rank of senior assistant secretary to deputy secretary to joint secretary and finally to the rank of additional secretary in a period of two weeks. Before 5 August, these officials, who were senior assistant secretaries, were certain that they would get no promotion for the rest of their careers, so they were preparing for retirement. These officials are now being posted to important positions in various ministries following the fall of the Awami League government by the student-people movement.

Talks are making rounds at the public administration ministry that since the officials who were promoted to three ranks in a short period of time had no involvement in any important tasks or policymaking process, some of them might face problems in carrying out their duties on important positions.

Former rector of Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre (BPATC) and former secretary AKM Abdul Awal Mazumder AKM Abdul Awal Mazumder told Prothom Alo those who become an additional secretary from a senior assistant secretary in a short time should prove themselves competent by carrying out their duties skillfully.

Public administration ministry sources said KM Kabirul Islam of BCS (Bangladesh Civil Service) 11th batch was a senior assistant secretary until 13 August and was promoted to the rank of additional secretary in two weeks. Similarly, Mahbubur Rahman of the BCS 13th batch was promoted to additional secretary from senior assistant secretary. He did not get the promotion because his family is involved in BNP. However, several officials from the 11th and the 13th batches have already become secretaries.

Prothom Alo spoke to KM Kabirul Islam and Mahbubur Rahman. They said they were not promoted due to political discriminations during the past government.

Along with the deprived officials, several officials, who were beneficiaries, controversial and faced allegations of corruption, also got promoted. Even officials facing departmental cases or lawsuits filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission for involvement in corruption were also promoted.

An official of BCS 15th batch was promoted to additional secretary from senior assistant secretary. According to the public administration sources, this official faced allegation of emblazing public funds along with others by overpricing 33 acres of land during the land acquisition for the Bibiana-2 power plant project.

Another official of the BCS 15th batch was also promoted to additional secretary from senior assistant secretary, but he faced allegations of amassing wealth illegally.

Officials, who were the beneficiaries of the past government, also hold important positions in the interim government. Two of them became personal secretaries to two advisers of the interim government. One of them is from the BCS 24th batch and the official was a personal secretary to the principal secretary of the former prime minister and was the director of the Prime Minister’s Office. Such promotions drew flaks from officials who were deprived during the past government.

A senior official of the public administration ministry told Prothom Alo on condition of anonymity no strong message has been given to the administration from the government over the last month. An initiative of appointment must be based on merit and skill to speed up the task.

According to public administration ministry sources, DCs who were appointed over the past two days are the officers of BCS 24th, 25th and 27th batches. Appointment of the BCS 24th batch was made during the past BNP-Jamaat government in 2005 while the BCS 24th batch was appointed in 2006.

The public administration ministry appointed DCs in 59 districts in two phases in two days. Officials who were deprived and keen to become DC demonstrated at the secretariat demanding the cancellation of these two gazettes. They said many of the newly-appointed DCs were beneficiaries of and blessed by the past government, and these officials also held better positions.

Witnesses and ministry sources said 50-60 officials with the rank of deputy secretary gathered in front of the Appointment Promotion and Deputation (APD) Wing of the public administration ministry around 2:00 pm on Tuesday and demonstrated. At one point, they entered the room of the APD wing joint secretary KM Ali Azam and created a ruckus. They asked him why the officials who were the beneficiaries of the past government were appointed DCs instead of appointing the deprived ones. This tirade lasted for long. After that, they went to the next room of another joint secretary Ziauddin Ahmed and also staged a demonstration there.

The protesting officials belonged to BCS 24th, 25, and 27th batches, according to the ministry sources.

Several protesting officials told Prothom Alo most of the 59 newly-appointed DCs were posted to various better positions during the Awami League government. On the other hand, those who were deprived have been deprived once again.

Ministry sources said the deprived officials met cabinet secretary Mahbub Hossain around 5:30 pm and held a half-hour-long meeting with him. After the meeting, they told the journalists the cabinet secretary assured them that the gazettes would be revoked and he would talk to the chief adviser on the matter.

A review of the two gazettes showed several newly-appointed DCs were personal secretaries to ministers during the past government. Some were even involved in the Chhatra League in student life. Some face criticism at field administration for controversial activities while holding the positions of UNO and ADC. Some were also personal secretaries to the secretaries.

The interim government terminated the contractual appointment of civil aviation and tourism ministry secretary Md. Mokammel Hossain on 14 August, and the post remained vacant as of Tuesday, resulting in a deadlock in development projects and administrative activities under the ministry. Shipping secretary Mostafa Kamal was made OSD on 2 September.

Public administration sources said the post of secretary remains vacant at seven ministries and divisions. Besides, a secretary post also remains vacant at the Planning Commission.

The ministries and departments without secretaries are Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism, Ministry of Shipping, Planning Division, Parliament Secretariat, Financial Institutions Division, Bangladesh Energy and Power Research Council and Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA).

Adviser to the interim government Ali Imam Majumdar told Prothom Aloit takes some time to return to normalcy after any mass uprising. The disorder in administration is not as acute as it is thought. Those who were deprived in administration are getting promotions, but one or two mistakes might happen, he added.

After the interim government was formed, officials in the administration cadre were getting promotions only, causing anger among officials in other cadres including education, information and agriculture. As a result, officials of 25 various BCS cadres from an alliance titled Inter-cadres Discrimination Elimination Council on 31 August pressing various demands including promotion.

Officials of the council said officials in the administration cadre get promotions regularly and supernumerary posts were created to promote to additional posts. But, officials in other cadres receive no promotion even after fulfilling all criteria.

Former cabinet secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told Prothom Alo over mobile phone on Tuesday the country has undergone a massive change through the student-people uprising. Amid such circumstances, discipline in administration cannot be restored in the conventional manner. Besides, everyone’s expectations are high. But it is not possible to meet everyone’s demands at once. It will take time, he added.

This report appeared in the print and online editions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Hasanul Banna.