Promotions
Most recently, the government promoted a huge number of civil servants to different posts in the civil bureaucracy hierarchy. While the mass promotion has been criticized by the media as promotion spree or the like, there is no denying the fact that promotion is definitely one of the most effective tools for generating employees' motivation. This is all the more true in a situation where government employees' incentive packages are not at all commensurate with the market prices, let alone being comparable with those of their counterparts in the private sector. So, granting promotion to the deserving employees (if it has been really done so) is surely a good gesture by the government. But what strikes me is the information that a large number of officers promoted will remain posted as officers on special duty (OSD) ( read, officers on no duty). The euphemism “the officer on special duty' is in fact a stigma which is arbitrarily used for dumped officers as well as for officers newly promoted and waiting for placement. The overcrowded lobby of OSDs will be eased to some extent by posting most of the promoted officers belonging to the administration cadre on in sito basis ( in positions they were holding before their promotion). But officers who got promoted to the post of deputy secretary from other cadres perhaps will have to sit idle for a long time. Some of them will get posting by dint of strong tadbir (lobbying) or just by virtue of luck. While the secretariat is overcrowded with OSDs, some important cadres like Audit and Accounts, Customs, Income Tax suffer from acute shortage of manpower. By losing more senior level officers who opted to become deputy secretaries, the HRM situation of these department will worsen further. So, as in administration cadre, it will be an effective and efficient decision for government to post officers coming to the senior service pool from other cadres on in sito basis in their respective cadres until they are posted in the secretariat job. Otherwise, the government's indulgence in the luxury of having a huge number OSDs by paying them and not getting any service from them in return will simply be damaging in the long run. Moreover, psychological trauma of the OSDs who are otherwise not meant for being traumatized by remaining workless and hence worthless is sure to adversely affect the collective efficacy and efficiency of the bureaucracy.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments