Administrative pyramid collapses due to frequent promotion

Mahfuz Emran: According to the rules, when an officer retires or a post becomes vacant, naturally, someone eligible for the following post should be promoted. But no past government has followed that rule in terms of promotion in administration, it is still not followed. In the last two weeks, 479 officials have been promoted from Deputy Secretary of Administration to Secretary level after the Interim Government came to power. The organizational structure of the administration has been destroyed by such mass promotion. The pyramid is broken.
A pyramid is depicted to represent the organizational structure of the administration, in which the number of officials decreases from the bottom to the top. But the opposite picture is prevailing in the administration of the country. Although there is an acute shortage of officers at the lower level, the number of officers at the upper-middle level of the pyramid is two-three times more than the sanctioned posts.
Administration experts have commented that this situation has arisen due to unplanned promotions even though the posts are not vacant. According to them, the current administration is running on the same manpower structure as it was 41 years ago. The government should reform the manpower structure in view of reality.
According to the information of the Ministry of Public Administration on August 27, there are currently 69 approved positions of senior secretaries and secretaries in the administration; But 72 people are working. There are 524 officers against 142 posts of Additional Secretary.
In other words, there are 382 more officers than required in this position. There are 886 officers in 332 posts of Joint Secretary.
There are 554 additional officers at this level as well. Although the approved number of posts of Deputy Secretary is 998, there are 1,591 people working in this post. The exact opposite picture is in the post of Assistant Secretary and Senior Assistant Secretary. The number of approved posts for senior assistant secretary is 2,975; But 1,217 people are working. There are 1,217 people working in the position of assistant secretary, but the number of posts is 1,393.
During the last period of the Awami League government, the administration had almost the same picture. As against 69 Senior Secretaries/Secretary posts then 78 people were working. Apart from this, there were 393 people against 142 posts of Additional Secretary, 661 against 332 posts of Joint Secretary and 1,473 people against 998 posts of Deputy Secretary. There were 2,171 officials as against 2,975 senior assistant secretaries. While 1,217 people are working in the post of Assistant Secretary, the number of posts was 1,393.
The matter was discussed with the then Public Administration Minister Farhad Hossain. He said, ‘Enam Committee was formed four decades ago in 1983. Various ministries, departments and offices are running according to the manpower structure of that committee. Manpower structure is being updated by creating new posts in some departments as per requirement. The matter is under process. We are trying to bring back the pyramid shape of administration. For this, the officials are being given less promotion.
After the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government on August 8, An interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus came to power. Advisor Ali Imam Majumdar attached to the office of the Chief Advisor is now looking after the Ministry of Public Administration. At least a dozen officials who were appointed on contract during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure have been canceled after the interim government came to power. Besides, 5 retired officials have been promoted to the post of senior secretaries after being appointed on contractual basis. Subsequently, 118 senior assistant secretaries were promoted to deputy secretaries, 225 deputy secretaries to joint secretaries and 131 joint secretaries to the post of additional secretaries. In other words, a total of 479 officials were promoted at four levels of administration in the last two weeks. In this, the pyramid shape of the administration was destroyed.
On review, it has been found that there are now additional officers in each post from Deputy Secretary to Additional Secretary. There are 1,472 sanctioned posts at three levels from Deputy Secretary to Additional Secretary, while 3,01 officials are working. Many officers have to work in lower ranks even after getting promotion due to non-vacancy of posts. Even the work of senior assistant secretary is being given to some joint secretaries. Again, the organizational structure of public administration has broken down as the number of officers at the lower two levels (Senior Assistant Secretary and Assistant Secretary) is much less than the authorized posts. 3,270 officials are working in 4,368 positions approved at these two levels. The number of vacancies in these two levels is 1,098. As a result, the traditional pyramid shape of public administration has broken and taken the shape of a fat belly.
The administration columnist and author of many books on administration thinks that such a situation has arisen due to promotion without rank. Feroze Mia. He told, “The previous governments have broken the organizational structure of the administration by promoting without posts. The balance of the administration has already been lost. Now once again mass promotions to remove the deprivation of the ‘deprived’ have created a kind of chaos. In order to make the administration more dynamic, the 41-year-old manpower structure needs to be reformed urgently, both administratively and legally. There is no alternative.’