Police verification for recruitment needs revision
Despite receiving the recommendations of the Bangladesh Public Service Commission (BPSC) after passing in all the BCS exams, a negative police report can shatter the dreams of a job seeker. This is what happened to about 400 meritorious young persons from the 32nd BCS to the 39th BCS examination. Prothom Alo on Sunday carried a front-page detailed report on the issue.
It is difficult to find any rational reason to destroy the dreams of talented youths this way. There is no objection to the police verification before the notification issued by the Ministry of Public Administration to join the service on the recommendation of PSC after completion of the recruitment process in the cadre service of public administration. But questions can be raised as to how smoothly and fairly the verification process is being carried out and how accurate and reasonable is the report being given by the police about the candidate.
It is observed that a significant number of job seekers are being removed from the notification list. There are rules for verifying 16 types of information about candidates who have passed the BCS exam.
Information such as where the candidate has studied, where he or she has resided or lived in the last five years, whether he has been arrested, charged or convicted in a criminal or any other case and so on are verified. Of the nearly 400 candidates who were dropped from the final round due to negative police reports from the 32nd to the 39th BCS exams, most have no criminal or other charges against them. There is no information that they were ever arrested, charged or convicted. So it must be investigated on what basis did the police give a negative reports about them.
The police verification process must be made transparent, fair and ethical in the recruitment of candidates who have passed the BCS examination. No candidate should be excluded except for criminal or such cases
Prothom Alo has managed to find out in many cases that the political involvement of the candidate is given special priority during the police verification. The political affiliation of a candidate, his parents, and even his relatives is taken into account. Negative reports about the candidate are given by the police due to their farthest affiliation with any anti-government political party and even rumors about it. But in a democracy, the right of every adult citizen to have an independent political view or to participate in or support the activities of a political party is considered a constitutional right.
Despite actively participating in student politics, many talented young people successfully passed the BCS examination and joined the cadre service earlier. Over time, that culture has largely disappeared. Now youths who dream of getting a job in the cadre service usually try to stay away from all kinds of politics. But it is not acceptable to be deprived of the final appointment even after passing all the steps of BCS due to their father or any other relative’s involvement in so-called opposition politics.
Not only political bias, but also there are allegations of unethical practices in police reporting. Unethical practices in this matter are very likely where a vested quarter of the police administration is involved in such misdeed for years.
The police verification process must be made transparent, fair and ethical in the recruitment of candidates who have passed the BCS examination. No candidate should be excluded except for criminal or such cases.