Manpower-starved railway hiring at last

The long drawn-out manpower shortage in Bangladesh Railway is likely to be eased as the state-owned rail transport agency will soon resume hiring staff after a pause of nearly three years.

The authorities expect to gradually add 12,000 to 15,000 manpower in the next five years, BR Director General Md Shamsuzzaman said.

They have already held a meeting to start the process, he told The Daily Star recently.

"At first, we will start recruitment of very essential manpower like station masters, loco masters, and guards and it will be done online," he added.

Officials say the railway authorities will recruit these non-gazetted staff of grade 10 to 20 -- the major workforce -- as per new recruitment rules approved recently. Railway officials from grade 1 to 9 are recruited through Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) exams.

Under the new rules, a committee comprising representatives from BR and other ministries and agencies will conduct the recruitment process.

Under the previous system, BR hired its staff without involving any other agencies. But the process allegedly lacked transparency and for this it hogged the headlines on many occasions.

Apart from the recruitment, BR is going to have a new organogram with additional manpower, including two new wings to deal with development projects and ICT-related issues.

The finance ministry has already given the go-ahead to 47,637-post organogram, which is 7,362 posts higher than the existing one, following approval of the public administration ministry.

The organogram has to go through some more procedures before final approval, which may take two or three months, the officials said.

However, BR will be able to start the recruitment process following the existing organogram with the new recruitment rules already being effective, they added.

The move to increase manpower comes at a time when BR is facing a huge shortage of workforce directly involved in train operations.

A total of 15,350, out of 40,275 existing posts, remained vacant till June this year. The operations of more than 100 stations cannot be resumed due to lack of manpower.

On the other hand, the recruitment of additional manpower will put more financial pressure on BR, which is continuing to incur losses -- Tk 1,738.37 crore in the 2018-19 fiscal year. Last fiscal year's data was not available.

NEW RECRUITMENT RULES

Until 2017, BR had been recruiting employees -- grade 10 to 20 -- under Bangladesh Railway Non-Gazetted Service Recruitment Rules-1985 though it was annulled in June 2013 following a High Court verdict, officials said.

The HC declared illegal the seventh constitutional amendment that had legitimised the military rule of Hussain Muhammad Ershad. The 1985 rules were cancelled as they were enacted during Ershad's regime.

Unaware of it, BR continued to recruit employees from June 2013 till 2017, and some 4,000 employees were recruited during this period. Knowing about the order, BR stopped recruitment process, sources said.

The officials this correspondent talked to could not explain this "misunderstanding".

Later, following the direct intervention of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, BR and railways ministry prepared the new rules that already got final approval.

Jobs of the 4,000 employees were given retrospective validity under the new rules, the officials said.

The new rules say a committee led by a joint director general of BR will conduct the recruitment process. The five-member committee will have representatives from the railways ministry, public administration ministry, and Bangladesh Public Service Commission.

BR Director General Md Shamsuzzaman said the previous rules had some inconsistencies. "Now, Bangladesh Railway will follow the same recruitment process that other government agencies follow," he said recently.

Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said the new process will ensure transparency in railway recruitment.

"We will start the recruitment process very soon," he told The Daily Star on November 19.

ORGANOGRAM MYSTERY

In all recent documents, 40,275 posts were mentioned as BR's manpower.

Interestingly, when BR went to change the organogram, they found BR actually has 82,892 posts.

Two officials of BR and the railways ministry with knowledge of the matter said, in 1983, the Enam Committee report stipulated 68,524 posts for BR.

Besides, BR created 14,368 posts, mainly for its workshops in between 1983 and 1997, raising the total number of posts to 82,892, they said.

But in the late '90s, the World Bank suggested BR reduce its manpower significantly to get loans and since then, 40,275 posts were mentioned as BR manpower, one of the officials said.

"I think the organogram [of 40,275] was not approved maintaining all necessary procedure. So we have to follow the organogram of 82,892 when we went to revise the organogram," he told this correspondent recently, wishing to remain unnamed.

As a result, BR had to  first cancel 40,728 posts and then it placed a new organogram incorporating some new posts, he said, adding that the finance ministry gave approval to 47,703 posts.

Now, there are two more steps before getting final approval from the Prime Minister's Office and the process is expected to be completed within three months, another official said.

NEW WINGS

Currently, BR has five major wings -- each led by an additional director general (ADG).

BR will have another ADG post -- ADG (development) -- mainly to look after all BR projects, sources said. There will be four posts of joint director general (JDG) under the ADG.

"There is an allegation that the traffic department has less involvement in development projects. This new wing will synchronise all departments," BR DG Md Shamsuzzaman said.

Besides, there will be an Information and Communications Technology Cell under a senior system analyst to deal with ICT-related issues, he said, adding that BR's public relations wing will also be strengthened.

Md Shamsuzzaman said they have already held a meeting about starting the recruitment process.

However, BR will not be allowed to fill all vacant posts at a time as per the conditions set by the finance ministry, he said. "We have to inform the ministry about our recruitment plan beforehand," he added.