Civil service and the younger generation

When asked why youngsters do not prefer civil service, the answers included inclination for private service, entrepreneurship, joining family businesses and even going abroad for higher studies or immigration. When the panellists were asked what factors they had considered for not joining government service, they frankly indicated the lure of higher salaries, incentive systems, and better work environment as being the key motivations for private service.

They decried the low salary structure of the civil service and the fact that it is now widely believed that anyone who works for the government has to be involved in corruption to sustain personal and family expenses, for which even those who retain their honesty, still suffer a tarnished reputation. Many admitted that though their parents and grandparents may have been in civil service, that they would prefer not to join, though it does have fringe benefits and ensures a lot of respect.

However, some of the audience did show interest for joining civil service on condition that its image could be purged of the stigma of corruption, while a few declared that unless some people were bold enough to join the civil service and change things around that matters would continue to worsen which ultimately would mean that the nation would fall into the hands of a mediocre bureaucracy deprived of a lot of the intelligence and talent gone to the private sector or elsewhere.

Some also said that it is only possible to join civil service and remain honest if there is a source of additional income from part-time jobs or consultancies or business ventures as it is virtually impossible to live on the low pay of government jobs. Some said that they would rather prefer to go abroad and work for the UN agencies and the World Bank to try and contribute to the nation from there, though the idea did meet with some criticism.

A few hinted that going abroad or to private service was not doing proper service to one's nation which according to one participant could only be possible through government service, but the panellists countered that by pointing out that establishing an industry and creating employment for hundreds or thousands of people could be doing the country an immense service as well. Going abroad and contributing to national fame was also defended as a means of serving the nation well.

On exploring more reasons for avoiding civil service, some more brilliant analytical points arose such as: that the majority of the younger generation wanting to come to or remain in Dhaka, whereas government jobs require postings to even remote districts; that with nearly a hundred thousand youth studying in private universities now or in autonomous institutions like IBA, that they become acclimatised to a very good work environment, which they do not find in government service. Some deplored the fact that the BCS exams, which are a pre-requisite for entering into civil service, is a faulty examination system where there are frequent leakage of questions and where the results are often delayed by up to two years or even manipulated through political nepotism.

In order to encourage more of the younger generation to join the civil service, the panellists and audience specifically recommended some ideas which I helped to streamline into the following suggestions: that in-kind benefits should be reduced and cash salary should be increased; that there should be performance based incentives and bonuses to reduce the need for corruption; that there should be extensive training programs on not only functional skills, but English language and technology; that quicker promotions should be ensured; that investments have to be made on improving the physical work environment; that the recruitment process should be made more transparent and simpler; that experts from the private sector have to be brought in as consultants and deputed to improve the public sector at high payments; that competition and interaction between public and private sectors have to be improved; that communication has to be improved between the different levels of the hierarchy; that the hierarchy itself has to be flattened; that the staff number should be "right-sized"; that decision making should be expedited and red-tape reduced; that ministries can be relocated to other districts to enhance decentralization; that government revenue has to be increased in order to be able to increase pay rolls; that educational institutions have to be improved in other districts so that people do not only want to stay in Dhaka for ensuring better educations for their children and hence do not use that as an excuse to quit civil service, and much more.

Indeed all the ideas forwarded were specific, concrete, and powerful, each one of which can indeed be implemented if there is the willingness and will to do so. It is the appeal of the younger generation through this program to all policy makers to help carry out these recommendations so that more of the youth can get an opportunity to serve the nation even more closely by joining the improved modernised version of the civil service of the future.