TDS Desk

Officials of different cadres of Bangladesh Cadre Service (BCS) are facing off with varying demands including posts and promotions, giving rise to inter-cadre conflict.

Within a day of a large gathering of admin cadre officials in the secretariat, the officials of 25 cadres are observing a ‘pen down’ for an hour today. As part of the programme, they want to hold a human chain and rally in phases.

Education and health are the largest of 25 cadres in terms of number of officials. The education cadre has around 16,000 officials and the health cadre has over 30,000 officials. Officials of these two cadres have protested the public administration reform commission’s recommendation to keep these two out of cadre service.

BCS Health Cadre Association, an organisation of health cadre officials, pressed for two demands in a press conference at National Press Club on Monday. They demanded the recruitment for the deputy secretary pool should be conducted through an open examination process and appointments to all positions at policy-making level of the ministry of health must be from the health cadres.

There has always been psychological conflict among the officials of different cadres of the government over facilities and perks. The conflict has now become visible since the reform commission laid out some recommendations. After these recommendations came out, the admin cadre officials and officials of 25 other cadres have become veritably at loggerheads. Officials have raised their voice on social media, which often disclose the division.

Currently officials from other cadres alongside the admin cadre can also be promoted to deputy secretary post. For the deputy secretary posts, admin cadre officials get a 75 per cent quota while the remaining 25 per cent officials are taken from other cadres. The public administration reform commission recently proposed a 50:50 quota between the admin cadre and the other cadres. Moreover, it proposed separating education and health cadres from the cadre system. These proposals have brought to fore the inter-cadre conflict.

The admin officials are angry that the promotion quota of the administration cadre will be reduced if such recommendations are implemented. There are more than 6,000 officers in this cadre. They are now demanding that a ‘Bangladesh Administrative Service’ be established by combining the posts from assistant commissioner (entry level) to secretary. That means, allocating 100 per cent posts of administration only for the admin cadre officials. The admin officials on Sunday held a large gathering in the secretariat to place home their demands. The admin cadre officials met Md Mokhles Ur Rahman, the senior secretary of the public administration ministry and also the member secretary of the reform commission, to raise their concern. Mokhles Ur Rahman assured the admin officials that the commission would sit with the officials before placing the final recommendation.

Wishing anonymity, an admin cadre official working at the secretariat told That on Monday that they would remain vocal in the coming days to realise their demands.

Meanwhile, the Inter-Cadre Discrimination Elimination Council, the platform of government officials belonging to 25 Bangladesh Civil Service cadres, will go on movement from Tuesday, observing an hour-long pen down from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm.

They demanded a quota-free deputy secretary pool and made officials from all cadres eligible for promotions to the post of deputy secretary through examinations. Besides, each ministry must be run by officials from the cadres concerned.

The Council announced that they would hold human chains in front of all offices on Thursday and a rally in Dhaka on 4 January.

Wishing anonymity, an information cadre official told that they have planned to go for tougher movement gradually.

CONFLICTS MAINLY OVER PROMOTIONS AND PRIVILEGES

Officials are appointed in 26 cadres of the Bangladesh Civil Service through three phases of recruitment tests under the PSC.

These cadres are administration, police, foreign affairs, taxation, agriculture, Ansar, audit and accounts, cooperatives, customs and excise, family planning, fisheries, food, forest, general education, technical education, health, information, livestock, postal, public health engineering, public works, railway engineering, railway transportation and commercial, roads and highways, statistics and commerce cadres. Job nature, as well as posts, promotions, opportunities and facilities, varies in these cadres, and that mainly contributes to the conflicts, people concerned said.

Officials from various cadres alleged admin, police, foreign affairs and taxation cadre officials supersede in promotion. People concerned said had promotions taken place timely this problem would have gone away.

Recruitment expert and former additional secretary Firoz Miah told that the main task of the Public Administration Commission was to emphasise how public service can be more accessible, instead, they are talking about the opportunities and facilities in different cadres.

Cadre does not necessarily imply public admin and cadre is a small beneficiary part of the public admin. Taking them into consideration only will not work and now it will be very difficult to mitigate the situation due to the face-off of both sides. The government will have a hassle, and eventually the entire administration might come to a standstill. Besides, conflict also exists in non-cadres, and who would solve that? So, a separate committee might be formed to mitigate these conflicts and discrimination because it is a matter of long-time scrutiny, as well as it is not a task of the Public Administration Commission either, he added.