National pay scale
The government has announced the seventh national pay scale fixing the highest salary at Tk 40,000 and the lowest at Tk 4,100. The new pay scale has come up with a 52 percent increase, on an average, in the basic salary of the public servants and the finance minister, while announcing this good news, assured the countrymen that the new pay regime would not negatively impact the kitchen market. This enhanced pay scale will require the government an additional amount of Tk 62.22 billion annually.
As is widely believed, this new pay scale is for addressing a long-standing feeling that the government employees are not well paid and hence they resort to corruption and do not perform as expected. But how this enhanced salary and associated benefits will motivate them to come out of the age-old system of poor performance and corrupt practices remains a question. After completion of my engineering graduation in 1973, I served for about seven years in a government office. I very clearly remember that on my joining, I was not given any job-orientation and no one told me what were my duties & responsibilities and what was expected of me. I do not really know how the system has been changed during the last 35 years. But if the overall performance of the government is any indication, then probably nothing positive has taken place.
It is really good news that from now on the government employees will enjoy more than double financial benefits. But they should know who is paying them and for what. They are public servants and even a rickshaw puller pays for them in the form of VAT and other tax structures. Along with the pay scale the government must draw an action plan to motivate the government employees to be obedient public servants and bring some relief to the life of the people with higher responsibility, greater accountability, enhanced efficiency, firm commitment and, above all, integrity. The surgeon of a government hospital should know that he/she must look for another job if something is left inside the stomach of a patient!
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