Introduction:Bangladesh needs a cadre service of
high quality and integrity for mobilizing and utilizing its domestic resources(Kim and Monem, 2008:2).
In Bangladesh, thousands of civil servants are recruited In various cadres
almost every year. The quality of cadreservice is very much dependent on the quality of individuals recruited. Here
lies the importance of recruiting the best
and the brightest candidates for cadre service who can make the
bureaucracy an efficient, innovative, dynamic and powerful force to respond to
the needs of the society. In Bangladesh, Cadre service was first officially
recognized in 1981 by formulating the Bangladesh Civil Service Recruitment
Rules (Wahhab,2009:4). At present there are 28 cadres in Bangladesh Civil
Service and these are divided into two
board categories, general cadres and
Professionals or Technical cadres. This
Paper attempts to make an overview on The basic provisions of civil service
act and special focus on the problems in
human resource management promotion procedure. Secondly, it provides a
description on different irregularities in promotion policy . Lastly it
suggests recommendations and presents the conclusion of the study.
Objectives of the
Study:
The study
has some specific objectives. These are given below
1)To
identify the loopholes between Civil Service Promotion Act and actual Promotion
practice.
2)To
identify possible measures to mitigate this unfair practice in case of promotion.
Research Question:
To conduct
the study it needs some research questions. These questions are:
1) What is
Human Resource Management in Bangladesh Civil Service?
2) What is
the legal framework of Bangladesh Civil Service?
3)What is
the actual promotion policy in Bangladesh Civil Service?
4) Who are
the key players in case of promoting civil servants?
5)What types
of unfair practice are done in case of promotion?
Problem
Statement:Bangladesh
Civil Service is a direct lineal descendants of Indian civil service and civil
service system of Pakistan. Bangladesh civil service act encompasses all the
procedures of recruiting, promoting as well as training of civil servants.
There are many inconsistency in Civil Service Act. It creates following
problems:
ü There are some contradiction between
act and real Promotion practice
ü Leading political party’s leaders
influence the promotion policy.
ü Powerful and permanent secretaries
also influence the promotion mechanism of civil servants.
Scopes and Limitation
of the Study:This
study paper includes both scope and limitations.
Scopes:
·
Information
is available in the websites.
·
A
huge number of scholars conducted study on this topic
Limitations of the
study:
v Limitation of time
v Limitation of financial resources
v Unable to Contact with renowned
experts on this issue.
Literature
Review:There are
many articles are available in the internet on theoretical problems of Public
Administration of Bangladesh. I also found article on Bangladesh Civil Service
Act.One of the articles of Dr. FerdousJahan, professor of Public Administration
department also available in the internet and the article title “Public
Administration of Bangladesh”.
Methodology of the
study:
Type of the Research:The research will be a qualitative
one.
Data Collection Method:The research is based on secondary
data. Data will be collected from
·
Internet
·
Extranet
·
Newspapers
and
·
Various
journals and articles.
Legal framework:
Findings of the study:The major findings of the study are
given below:
Human
Resource Management:Human
resource management (HR) is a function in organizations designed to maximize
employee performance in service of their employer’s strategic objectives. HR is
primarily concerned with how people are managed within organizations, focusing
on policies and systems. HR departments and units in organizations are
typically responsible for a number of activities, including employee recruitment,
training, performanceappraisal and rewarding.
Cadre
Service:Some class 1
officers of Bangladesh Civil Service belong to the cadre service. Cadre service
means the organizations of civil servants in well-defined groups, services of
cadre’s. Cadre services are constituted under the specific laws having a clear
structure with a number of hierarchical positions. Cadre services have specific
recruitment and promotion rules and the employees recruited by PSC through BCS
examination. In contrast, non-cadre services are mostly based on posts and
positions having no definite structure of mobility either horizontally or
vertically.
Human Resource
Management in Bangladesh Cadre Service:
Human resource management is the process of efficiently
achieving organizational objectives with and through people. Human resource
management of BCS therefore certain issues that must be responsible to changing
the condition. They are- recruitment and selection; placement; training and
development; promotion and performance appraisal; compensations and inducements;
transferring and rewarding; career planning of cadre service.
Regulatory Framework of
Bangladesh Cadre Service:
The Constitution of Bangladesh never uses the term civil
service or civil servant (Ali:2004,P45). Article 21(2) of the constitution has
laid down that “Every person in the service of the Republic has a duty to
strive at all times to serve the people”. The appointment, conditions of the
service, tenure of office, dismissal and reorganization of service has been
stipulated in articles 133, 134, 135, 136 and 152 of the constitution. The
following are the basic acts and provisions and rules relating to public
servants:
Bangladesh
Civil Service (Recruitment) Rules 1981:In this rules, the procedure for recruitment, appointment by
direct recruitment, appointment by promotion, duration for probation period,
confirmation has been stipulated.
The
Government Servants (Discipline And Appeal) Rules 1985:Under this rules, the grounds for
penalty provisions for punishment, procedures for inquiries’, provisions for
suspension, procedures for appeal, review and revision etc have been
stipulated.
BCS
Officers Promotions Rules 2002:Under this rules, the minimum qualifying service for
different posts, selection based on 100 marks (25% marks for educational
background, 55%marks for ACR, and 20 marks for having no discipline case) was
introduced.
However it has to be noted as of date there is no
comprehensive Civil Service act in Bangladesh to regulate the overall
performance management of the civil servants. The article 133 of the
constitution clearly spelt out that the Public Administration would be run as
per a law passed by the parliament but no such law has been enacted since the
country’s independence although consecutive governments have introduced rules
as adhoc measures for political gain.
Promotion in Bangladesh
Civil Service:
According to the Civil Service Rules 1981, there are four
authorities for promotion cases, deciding depending on the level of the
officials, namely-
·
Public
Service Commission
·
Departmental
Promotion Committee
·
Superior
Selection Board
·
Council
Committee on Promotion
The present promotion rule was approved by the president in
2002 and it was later published in an official gazette. For some inexplicable
reasons the gazette notification of the promotion rule remained “Inaccessible
and confidential” to the subjects concerned.
President
Quota:The
Governments in the past also used he “President Quota” to promote someone who
fails to get the minimum point of 85 for getting promotion to JS position. It
is alleged that this quota is being used to accommodate “preferred”, “most
influential” and “politically important” candidates. This nullifies the
original purpose of the president quota of inducting brilliant candidates from
outside the civil service through the lateral entry.
The Breakup of the 100
points for promotion:
Points
|
Area
|
50 points
|
Annual Confidential Report
|
25 points
|
Academic Performance
|
25 points
|
Disciplinary Reports
|
It is
mandatory that each candidate for promotion get at least 15 points for academic
performance to be considered for promotion regardless of aggregate score.
The Earlier promotion rule was based on seniority while the
current rule incorporated seniority, ACR, discipline and academic achievement.
The current system for promotion stipulates that officers have to get a minimum
score out of a total of 100 marks in order to qualify for the next higher post
of deputy Secretary. The Deputy Secretaries have to get a minimum score of 45
out of total of 100 in order for the next position.
Tadbir is a tradition of highly personal lobbying designed to
secure individuals benefits. It is manifested in the process of particularistic
politics designed to individual rather than collective policy and regulatory
benefits (Kochanek,1993:251).
Influence of Tadbir is all pervasive in civil service in case
of promoting officials. For example
Influence of Tadbir for
promoting officials:
Objectives
|
Rank
|
Promotion is made ,cancelled on
account of tadbir
|
1
|
Officers are also promoted on the
basis of requisition made by Ministers and Secretaries
|
2
|
Political leaders basically influenced
the promotion policy
|
3
|
Ministry promoted officials on the
basis on established policy
|
4
|
Powerful Persons Who
Influence The Promotion Policy:
·
Members
of political party in power.
·
Powerful
Secretaries.
·
Permanent
Secretaries.
·
Relatives
serving in the ministry in higher positions.
·
Senior
colleagues from locality
Mass promotion in
Bureaucracy: “Mass promotion in bureaucracy” 873
officials promoted to already heavily loaded civil bureaucracy”.
Real promotion Scenario
of Civil Bureaucracy
Designation
|
Number of Post
|
Previous Number
|
Newly Recruited
|
Additional Secretary
|
107
|
226
|
231
|
Joint Secretary
|
430
|
867
|
299
|
Deputy Secretary
|
830
|
1280
|
343
|
(The
Daily Star, 7 April, 2015)
So from the
above figure we can realize that promotion is made to satisfy the civil
servants who are loyal to the governments.
Negative outcome of
influencing the promotion policy of civil Servants:
1)
Politicization of Bureaucracy.
2) Use of
unfair means to get promotion
3) Breaking
Down of existing promotion rule
4) Use of
corrupt practice in getting promotion
5) Less
attention on developing one’s performance
6) after
all, breakdown of moral and ethical ground of civil servants.
Recommendations:
ü Civil service management should be
conducted on the basis of rules, regulations and neutrality.
ü Political accountability of civil
service should be strengthened.
ü Civil service has to be responsible
only for implementation rather involving itself in the policy formulation
process.
ü Promotion should be made on the basis
of competencies .
ü The existing ACR system should
immediately be replaced by performance Based Evaluation System (PBES).
ü The Civil Service should be
apolitical, performing its functions in an impartial and professional manner
without political fear or pressure.
ü A clearly spelled out Civil Service
Act should be the cardinal legal means for the organization, management and
development of civil service.
Conclusion: To function properly government
needs to maintain an able and efficient workforce. To do so the government must
ensure that civil service remains an attractive career choice. The recruitment
process and civil service salaries diminish the competitiveness of a public
service career relative to employment in the private sector or NGOs sectors.
The public sector does offer more job security and more favorable pension
benefits than the private sector, but these are not sufficient to close the
current salary gap. Some politicization of the civil service is unavoidable and
even desirable; but beyond this desirable level politicization can easily
undermine the reputation and effectiveness of the administrative institution of
the state. As a result many brightest candidates are now less likely to pursue
civil service careers and the status of the BCS has eroded. If the recruitment
and selection are administratively competent, politically neutral and imbibed
with the spirit of service we can make the bureaucracy an efficient, dynamic
and powerful force for better governance in the country.
References:
Jahan, F (2006), Public Administration
in Bangladesh, Working paper-1, Centr for Governance Studies, Dhaka: BRAC
University.
Ali, A.M.M. shawat (2007), Civil
Service Management in Bangladesh: An Agenda for policy Reform. Dhaka: UPL
Wahhab, M.A (2009) ‘Civil Service
Recruitment Policy in Bangladesh’ paper submitted for NAPSIPAG International
Conference, held on 11-13 December, 2009, Malaysia.
Dr. A.M.M. Shawkat Ali, Field
Administration and clustering file/ Field Administrative Reform, Report
prepared for Asian Development Bank, November 20, 2013.
Ali, A.M.M.S (2004), Bangladesh Civil
Service: A political-Administrative Perspective. University Press Limited:
Dhaka.
http://www the daily star.net
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