CIVIL BUREAUCRACY: Process set in motion for large-scale promotions

The government has set in motion a process to promote several hundred officers to the levels of deputy secretary, joint secretary and additional secretary, in the civil bureaucracy, although there are no vacancies in the approved organogram.
The Superior Selection Board, led by cabinet secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, is scrutinising profiles of aspirants to prepare lists of senior assistant secretaries, deputy secretaries and joint secretaries for promotion to higher levels, officials said.
‘We are meticulously examining each case to recommend the names of officers for promotion to deputy secretary, joint secretary and additional secretary. It will require several meetings to prepare the lists,’ Musharraf Hossain told New Age.
The top bureaucrat said the promotions could be announced by the public administration ministry by mid-February.
He, however, could not confirm how many officers would get promoted this time.
The SSB held its third meeting on Tuesday at the secretariat. The first meeting took place on Thursday with the cabinet secretary in the chair.
This is the first move for large-scale promotions in the administration after the ruling Awami League took office in January, 2014, for the second consecutive term.
The SSB in November 2013 finalised the lists of around 80 joint secretaries and nearly 300 senior assistant secretaries for promotion ahead of the 10th parliamentary polls.
Eighty joint secretaries were promoted to additional secretary a day after the Awami League-led government assumed office on January 12 last year while the promotion to deputy secretaries was stalled. Around 600 officers would get promoted at a time, according to officials.
Many officers have, meanwhile, started lobbying policymakers in the civil administration for promotion and some of those loyal to the ruling quarters were submitting demi-official letters from ministers seeking favour from the SSB, senior officials confirmed.
This has been in the practice in the ‘highly polarised’ administration to submit ‘DO’ letters from ministers seeking favour from the selection committee although it should be treated as misconduct in civil service, a SSB member said.
The seven-member selection committee also includes secretaries to the public administration ministry, the home ministry and the finance ministry and principal secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, as members.
A large number of officers are at present busy trying to earn the blessings of policymakers, ignoring their routine activities at the secretariat.
In groups, they visit the cabinet secretary, the principal secretary, the public administration secretary and the home secretary, among others, apparently to get a nod during the promotion process.
The government has kept on hold promotion of around 300 senior assistant secretaries to deputy secretary for over a year apparently in fear of adverse implications, amid an intense pressure from within the civil bureaucracy for a review of the process.
There are already over 1,287 deputy secretaries against 830 approved posts as set out in the formal structure of the administration. In addition, there are around 896 joint secretaries against 350 posts and 267 additional secretaries against 120 posts, according to official records.
The government in its previous term beginning 2009 gave promotion at all levels on several occasions, much beyond the approved structure in the civil service. Consequently, many officials were either made officers on special duty or kept in-situ as there were no vacant positions for them, according to the officials concerned.