Public servants in government cadres, with the exception of administrative ones, complain of discrimination for what they say in terms of promotion.
An association excluding the 5,000 administrative cadres called ‘Bangladesh Civil Service Association’ has also been formed to achieve parity between the government cadres.
The body comprises of some 46,000 officers in 26 cadres.
Leaders of the association have complained that court orders are being violated during the appointment of deputy secretaries, joint secretaries and additional secretaries.
According to them protocols are not being followed during the promotion of public administration cadres.
They said that it has become common practice for the Bangladesh Civil Service Cadres (BCS) of the 1985 batch to get additional promotions although there are no provisions for it in the constitution.
Although the provisions are followed strictly for all the other cadres, rules are being violated during the promotion of administrative cadres.
Besides, it is mostly administrative cadres who get promoted to the post of secretaries or senior secretaries.
The Director General of Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education had a long stint for the post of Additional Secretary. Recently, he had been promoted to the post of Secretary on the directive of the Prime Minister. Similarly, the head of information cadre is the Chief Information Officer. It was also the Additional Secretary rank. Recently this post was also promoted to Secretary. However, the head of all the ministries and offices of the administration cadre were always in the rank of Secretary.
There are currently 27 cadres in the civil services with 9,324 holding deputy secretary ranks, 385 joint secretary and 920 additional secretary.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Public Administration, there are 78 posts of secretary in the government administration, 621 for additional secretary, 764 for joint secretary, 1,599 for deputy secretary and 1,464 for senior assistant secretaries, as of Thursday (Oct 4).
The association said that according to the Services (Reorganisation and Conditions) Act, 1975 there should have been no parity in the benefits and pay scale of the same grade government employees.
However, the deputy secretaries and officials of equal rank are allocated Tk 3 million without interest for a car and a stipend of Tk 50,000 for maintenance. They complained that it was against the law.
“There is no inequality among the cadres, no law is being violated,” the Finance Minister, AMA Muhith
“The government has allocated cars because it can afford it. They will get the same benefits gradually,” he said.
“There are various levels of inequality amongst the BCS cadres. Sometime the discrimination is regarding promotion and sometimes it’s regarding authority,” said Professor Tuhin Wadud of Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur.
He said, “Cadre-based inequality has many forms. If all BCS cadres get employment in respective sectors at the same time, their promotion should take place accordingly but it’s not happening,” he added.
Tuhin said that there are various complications regarding the promotion process as well.
“For a health cadre to be promoted, they need an extra degree. Otherwise they stay in the same entry level. But that is not the case with the other cadres,” he said.
“All the other cadres are eligible for promotion with the same degree with which they entered the job. Among the 27 cadres, only health cadres require an extra degree which means that most of them are stuck in the same entry level post while their peers are promoted,” Tuhin complained.
He said that if the promotions took place batch-wise there would not be disarray amongst the cadres regarding the issue.
Tuhin further reiterated that the crisis was prevalent at district and upazila levels as well, saying, “A young officer of the administration cadre can hold an executive post. But a doctor, agriculturalist or engineer remains at the entry level post despite having a lot more merit and qualifications.”
If this situation is not remedied, inter-cadre discrimination cannot be overcome.
“Any job-related decision regarding the cadres is taken by the Secretariat but it is the administrative cadres who are responsible for taking those decisions,” he added.
He said that it dishonours the heads of the other cadres. He suggested that each ministry have specialized work force in the secretariat level.
“For example, the secretary of the Agricultural ministry should be a agricultural specialist and so on. This will make government more efficient and encourage cadres to work independently and responsibly.”
Meanwhile, the discrimination becomes more evident when administrative cadres of BCS 13th batch are working at joint secretary levels and all the other cadres of the same batch are working at deputy secretary level.
Secretary of Public Administration Ministry, Foyez Ahmmed said that there was no reason to worry, adding, “They will be promoted when the time is right.”