After independence of Bangladesh large scale recruitment started in different cadres of the Bangladesh Civil Service. There was vacuum in different services and there was some justification behind such recruitment. But the policy should have been revised after a few years. Due to large scale recruitment in class I cadres, after six seven years of service officers were demanding promotion to senior scale and after twelve thirteen years promotion to the post of Deputy Secretary and after a few more years Joint Secretary and so on. As a result, under pressure from officers the government had to consider large scale promotion to higher posts although vacancies were very few. Last year it so happened that over one hundred officers were promoted to the post of Additional Secretary against much fewer number of vacancies. And now there is intense pressure from the same group of officials for promotion to the post of Secretary. A few days ago over sixty officers were promoted to the post of Joint Secretary and there is immediate pressure for more promotion to the same post. Then again, class I officers with service of nearly twenty years are waiting for being promoted to the post of Deputy Secretary. Their concern is also genuine and press report says that government is contemplating promoting some three hundred officers to the post of Deputy Secretary shortly although there are much fewer vacancies. This has led to a situation where government has to promote for the sake of promotion and not for the need of the government and administration. This is also leading to wastage of public fund. All this resulted due lack of proper planning or no planning or ad hocism in the administration. Another fallout of large scale recruitment to class I post is serious deterioration in quality of officers. Even many senior officers cannot draft a letter in English correctly and sometimes even in Bangla.Such a situation calls for a serious review of the current recruitment policy of class I- B.C.S cadres. During the Pakistan time total recruitment in all the central class I cadres of East Pakistan quota was roughly 40 in a year. Total recruitment in erstwhile EPCS class I cadre varied from 30 to 50. EPCS class I officers used to get promotion to senior scale after roughly twenty years and very few of them got promoted to the rank of Deputy Secretary to the central government.
But now there is a rising expectation among officers although the average quality is simply horrible. So to restore efficiency and to prevent impasse it is high time that the government restricted recruitment to class I cadres seriously. Total number of recruitment in BCS class I cadres should be restricted to roughly one hundred in a year by recruiting five to ten class I officers in each cadre. And a class II cadre should be created where larger number of officers may be recruited. Class II officers can be promoted to class I posts after about fifteen to twenty years of service. This will enable the government to maintain efficiency in administration and to prevent pressure for undue promotion.
Will the Prime Minister's Secretariat and the Ministry of Establishment ponder over this?
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