Civil service shame

According to media reports, 95 out of the 153 elevated belong to the1982 special BCS batch, nine belong to former secretarial cadre of 1982 batch, eight to the 1982 BCS regular batch and three to the BCS 1981 batch. Around 50 eligible officers from 1982 special BCS batch, seven from 1981 batch, 12 from 1982 BCS regular batch and 10 from other cadres were deprived of promotion.

Similarly, five additional secretaries were promoted to full-fledged secretaries. The selection of officers for promotion, superseding the seniors, is sparking agitation in the administration, while a large number of aspirants complained that an influential quarter had handpicked officers considering their loyalty to the BNP and its major coalition partner Jamaat-e-Islami.

The government also promoted 378 senior assistant secretaries to the post of deputy secretary on January 26, ignoring about 200 officers having requisite qualification for promotion. After the promotion of 378 senior assistant secretaries, the number of deputy secretaries to become OSD rose to 463, as there were no vacant posts at deputy secretary level. All of the newly promoted deputy secretaries have been made OSD and posted to the establishment ministry until they get fresh postings.

The number of contractual appointments has also been increasing and most of such appointments, and extensions of contract, are being made on the basis of political allegiance. It has been alleged that most of the secretaries and additional secretaries getting contractual appointment, or extension of contracts, are inclined either toward BNP or Jamaat-e-Islami. Such appointments are greatly hampering smooth functioning of the administration.

The country director of the Department for International Development (DFID), David Wood at a press briefing in a city hotel during a two-day long conference titled Asia-2015: Promoting Growth, Ending Poverty said: "Bangladesh civil servants are not capable of implementing foreign aided projects in time." He also said that Bangladesh has to curb corruption, enhance capability of civil servants and ensure proper utilisation of foreign aid to reduce poverty.

Mass promotion of government officers has resulted in a record number of officers getting OSD status, having no work for years together. While there are 865 deputy secretary level posts, the number of deputy secretaries was 950 before the last promotion of 378 senior assistant secretaries to the posts of deputy secretaries on January 26. The other dimension of such mass promotion is that a large number of officers have got promotion on political consideration while many of them having requisite qualification were deprived. This is breeding frustration and resentment among an increasing number of officers in different cadres.

Bangladesh inherited this bureaucratic system introduced by the British rule. The civil service in this sub-continent, under the British regime, was regulated as per the terms and conditions laid down in the India Act, 1935, which contained fair and beneficial provisions aimed at protecting the interests of civil servants for performing their duties neutrally. But the civil servants in Bangladesh, unlike the civil servants in the neighbouring countries like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, have failed to maintain political neutrality.

The political neutrality of the civil servants in Bangladesh is also reinforced by rules restricting their political activities. Section 30 of the Government Servants Conduct Rules of 1979 holds: "No government servant shall bring, or attempt to bring political or other outside influence, directly or indirectly, to bear on the government or any government servant in support of any claim arising in connection with his employment. Section 32 of the said rules adds: "Contravention of any of these rules shall be construed as misconduct within the meaning of the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1985 and a government servant found guilty of such contravention shall render himself liable to disciplinary action under the aforesaid rules."

But the sections 30 and 32 of the Government Servants Conduct Rules are honoured more in breach than in observance. Not a single instance, however, can be cited in which a civil servant was awarded punishment for breach of conduct for his involvement in political activities. Many high government officers are now found to be engaged in extra-official activities that are political in nature, and the neutrality of the civil service is spoiled in these ways.

Bangladesh does not have, as yet, any civil service act or any other law regulating the civil service. The Government Servants Conduct Rules of 1979, the Government Servants (Special Provisions) Ordinance 1979, the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules 1985, and the Public Servants Dismissed on Conviction Ordinance 1985 contain the important rules regulating the civil service.

But these rules and ordinances do not provide protection to the civil servants from being repressed or victimised by the political party in power. Political neutrality of the civil servants is indispensable for smooth functioning of the administration. Self confidence, mutual trust and capability of shouldering responsibility are the key elements that are conducive to the growth of a politically neutral civil service. But mass promotion on political grounds has an undesirable impact on political neutrality of the civil service.

The frequent mass promotions on political consideration (latest one being the fifth of its kind under this government) has a demoralising effect on all the tiers of the civil service. The system of civil service is bound to be blemished if partisan loyalty, rather than merit, becomes the criterion for promotion. The civil servants, of all descriptions, are the servants of the republic and not of the party in power. They are not expected to be loyal to the party in power but are required to serve governments of different political ideologies without being partisan to any one of them. If the process of politicisation of the civil service continues unabated, the goal of good governance will remain elusive.

ANM Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star.