More promotions on the cards in admin cadre ahead of elections

When asked about the matter at an event at the secretariat on 30 July, the state minister highlighted the appointment of deputy commissioners (DC).

He said 20 of those who have been withdrawn from the DC post are of 22nd batch (joined in 2003).

"We hope they will be promoted to joint secretary soon. The meeting of superior selection board has already ended. That is why they have been withdrawn. The DC post is equivalent to a deputy secretary," he added.

Sources at the public administration ministry said the 22nd batch of BCS admin cadre has been taken into consideration for promoting those officers to joint secretaries this time.

Several officers from defunct economic cadre, which has been merged with the admin cadre, are also being considered for promotion to the post of joint secretary.

Besides, several officials who were deprived in the past (due to negative intelligence reports) have also been included in the list. Overall around 200 officials are likely to get promotion as joint secretaries.

Earlier, in November last year, 175 deputy secretaries were made joint secretaries.

Currently, there are 725 joint secretaries, though the administration has only 502 posts of joint secretary. Hence, some joint secretaries are still serving in the role of deputy secretary. The new promotions are expected to exacerbate the situation.

The promotion of senior assistant secretary to the post of deputy secretary may take some time. Here, the authorities are considering the 29th batch of BCS administration cadre, who commenced their service in 2011.

At the same time, the economic cadre officers, who were merged with the administration cadre, and some officers deprived of promotion from the 29th batch are likely to be promoted to the post of deputy secretary.

The total number of regular deputy secretary post is around 1,000. However, the public administration ministry claims the number to be around 1,750, including the equivalent posts across the country. A total of 1,698 officers are now serving in the position.

With the upcoming promotions, many deputy secretaries might have to serve the jobs of senior assistant secretary.

There were significant changes in administration in July, with the appointment of five new divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners (DC) in 30 districts.

Officers from the 22nd BCS batch, who have served for two to three years, were withdrawn from their positions. Now, officers from the 24th, 25th, and 27th BCS batches are serving as DC in different districts.

The appointment to the posts is crucial as the DCs and divisional commissioners play the role of returning officers in the national election. Generally, personal secretaries of ministers get priority during the appointment of and the scenario was nothing new this time.

Eight personal secretaries have been made DCs in different districts.

However, state minister for public administration Farhad Hossaind refuted claims of bias in the appointments, saying that DCs are appointed based on merit. The prime minister’s office (PMO) appoints the best officers as PS and the ministers have no intervention in the appointment process.

Several admin officials wishing not to be named told Prothom Alo that the officials of 25th batch are a bit aggrieved as the number of DCs appointed from that batch is relatively low.

Only 21 officers (joined in 2006) were made DCs from that batch while 40 officers from 24th batch (joined in 2005), 42 from 22nd batch (joined in 2003), 33 from 21st batch (joined in 2003), 48 from 20th batch (joined in 2001) and 18 officers from the 27th batch were made DCs.

Sources said that appointments or postings in the field administration of some senior officials are based on when and in which regime those officials were appointed or where they were posted in their service life.

Some officers even get good postings in the field administration based on their good rapport with senior officers of the public administration ministry or the prime minister’s office.

It can be mentioned that before the last general election on 29 December in 2018, officers were promoted to deputy secretary, joint secretary and additional secretary in three phases.

Of them, 154 joint secretaries were promoted to additional secretaries on 29 August. On 20 September, 149 were promoted to joint secretaries and 249 to deputy secretaries in October that year.

Earlier on 20 February in 2018, as many as 407 officers were promoted to deputy secretaries from senior assistant secretaries. 

Most of these officers have now become secretaries, additional secretaries and deputy commissioners.

A total of 26 officers of 24th BCS batch and 20 of 25th BCS batch are now posted as DCs. All of them got promotion before the last general election in 2018.

Public administration experts said wholesale promotion without adequate posts before the election to appease the officials in the last several years has broken the ideal structure of public administration and created a rather chaotic situation.

As the posts are not vacant, most of the promoted officials cannot work in the promoted positions rather they work in one or even two stages lower positions. This trend might benefit individuals but hurts the administration.

Shusasoner Jonno Nagorik’s (SHUJAN) secretary Badiul Alam Majumder told Prothom Alo that as the government has no accountability towards the voters, it will appease only those who keep the government in power. The government is fully dependent on the administration and that’s why it is promoting officials even if the posts are not vacant. But the system is collapsing due to such practice.

The government promotes officials this way when an election comes, he said adding the government did so before the elections of 2014 and 2018 and so are they doing this time too.