Faruque Ahmed
The way the government offered mass promotion to BCS cadre officials in the bureaucracy last week may be easily interpreted by observers watching the development as a targeted drive to creating a functional wing of the ruling party in the administration; which is otherwise apolitical by the nature of their jobs as the paid functionaries of the state. But as things are happening one after another, a growing fear is at work in the people about rapid politicization of the bureaucracy where officers loyal to the ruling party are now at work for the government degrading the civil liberties of the people to help the government to continue in power.
Unproductive mass promotion
Many people held the view that the mass promotion may be viewed without much exaggeration as a return gesture to bureaucracy for the help its members rendered to the government to continue in power. The plain fact is that there was no need for such promotion en masse if the government was not obliged otherwise for reasons like political expediency.
Reports said the government offered mass promotion to 873 bureaucrats this time making a mess in the administration in terms of service discipline and quality of services. Moreover, in few days interval, the authorities have also offered promotion to 134 police officers in the districts and nobody will have problem to understand that it was their due share in the wake of mass promotion in the civil administration.
There should not be any divergent views, as we say in giving promotion to qualified and deserving officers, based on seniority and satisfactory service performance. But what happened this time reflects wishful selection based on political considerations.
It appears to be the most liberal promotion that the government has ever given to officials in the country’s history and the common public perception is that it is ambient to appeasing the bureaucracy, which had lent all out support to the ruling party to win the January 5 election.
But what one may fear is that such mass promotion based on political consideration, as observations made in opinion columns of the newspapers said, is going to make our bureaucracy merit less and inefficient to run the government in absence of qualified and efficient officers who are losing ground in the fight for convenience.
Consequently, the administration is fast losing neutrality in dealing with people having divergent views and political stance while becoming highly inept and corrupt in many cases under the patronization of the party in power.
Salary doubled
Insiders say the Awami League government has also carried out mass promotion earlier in the past several years; but this time it turned out to be the most controversial one aimed at buying loyalty of the bureaucracy in its fight to defeat the opposition challenge calling for new election. The government has earlier announced the new pay scale which had almost doubled their take-home salary of officials. Now in a new cycle of mass promotion, as advised by former bureaucrats turn politicians who know better the intricacies of bureaucracy, the government has come out to make it the bastion of its political power with lavish benefits in cash and kind, whatever be its cost to the nation.
But in doing so, the administration is not only becoming top-heavy with a bloated manpower that is likely to result in an inefficient bureaucracy and a run on national exchequer. Critics now wonder how the government would justify the number of deputy secretaries at 1623 as against the sanctioned posts of 830 with new addition to 343 this time. How it would use 1158 joint secretaries as against 430 sanctioned posts with new addition to 291 and 457 additional secretaries compared to 107 posts with new addition to 231. The mess is widely visible at all level.
As reports say, nine joint secretaries are at work in the education ministry at the moment as against four sanctioned posts and it is a common scenario in most other ministries. News reports said most newly promoted officers have been asked to stay at their present posts as there is no available post to roll them upward.
Buying political loyalty
And it clearly shows that there was no need for promotion in demand for their service at the higher level. The officers are also happy with new pay and status without taking new pressure of work. They the promotion has been given on political merit of candidates and they have to operate accordingly as an extension of the ruling party politics bureaucracy.
It appears the service motto in the administration is now rapidly changing from commitment to serve the nation to loyalty to the ruling party.
But such promotion is not only creating congestion at the higher echelon of the bureaucracy, it is also leaving the lower tier without enough manpower. Statistics said the number of senior assistant secretaries in the bureaucracy should have been around 2000, but it stands now at 1665. There is also a shortfall in the number of assistant secretaries posted at the field level. It stands now at 1204 and there is a demand for another 700 to 900 officers to effectively run local administration.
There is a growing fear that such a politicized bureaucracy may destroy the very foundation of an effective administration. It may serve the ruling party in the short run but actually would become counter-productive at the end. The best thing is to leave the administration neutral and free from party politics. They will better serve the nation as servant of the republic than to any party in power.
Source: Weekly Holiday
