Wholesale promotions

We are all for promotion of deserving persons, but the government decision to promote 85 joint secretaries to the rank of additional secretaries despite having no vacancy for the position takes us by surprise. And most of them will be promoted in their current appointment. This is not the first time such promotions have been made. Back in April last year, some 873 senior civil bureaucrats were promoted. However, the advantage of course comes in terms of elevated financial packages and benefits that the new designations will accord. And the promotions are being given despite the fact a large number of civil servants are OSD.

We are told that most of those promoted this time were passed over previously. If the grounds for superseding them were valid, why the promotions now? The rationale for the current promotions is puzzling. This is likely to do little to bring any qualitative change to the administration. What it will do of course is further strain the public exchequer which will have to dish out a large sum per month. And we are told that more such promotions are in the works in the ranks of deputy secretaries and senior assistant secretaries. As things stand now, we will have 452 additional secretaries against 120 posts, 882 joint secretaries against 350 posts and 1,298 deputy secretaries against 830 posts.

In the past promotions were on merit. Either our bureaucrats have all become highly efficient or the objective criteria for promotion have been discarded, and promotion has become a matter of right. Wholesale promotions like these will have a debilitating effect on professionalism, not to speak of the strain on the public exchequer.