Officers from 25 cadres outside the administration cadre of the Bangladesh Civil Service on Tuesday alleged that the present Public Administration聽Reform Commission was likely to fail and would end up existing only on paper, just as it happened in the past.聽
They said that the commission would not be successful if it ignored their protest against the dominance of the administration cadre in promotion, facilities and status, said a press release.
The release was issued by the Inter-Cadre Discrimination Elimination Council as on the day it held a seminar on 鈥楻eformation of public administration: expectations and achievements鈥� at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh in the capital.
Since the Public Administration Reform Commission disclosed its draft recommendations on December 17, 2024, civil servants under the administration cadre and the rest 25 cadres had been at loggerheads, demanding their fair shares in the government administration jobs.
The reform commission recommends reserving 50 per cent quota only for the administration cadre officers aspiring for deputy secretary posts, which the protesting 25-cadre officers have disproved of.
Council members also alleged that 12 officers from the 25 cadres were recently suspended over a 鈥榯rifling鈥� matter of involving in a row with administration cadre officers on Facebook.
They also alleged that the reform commission was biased towards the administration cadre and submitted the final report ignoring the suggestions and demands of the other cadres.
Presenting the keynote paper at the seminar, council coordinator Muhammad Mofizur Rahman said that all the 26 commissions and committees established in the past for public administration reform had failed.
This time too, the commission would eventually end up being only on paper, although it was formed with the good aim to build a people-oriented, accountable, efficient and neutral public administration, he continued.
Without meeting their demands of eliminating the dominance of the administration cadre over the other cadres and the suspension of departmental actions against 12 officers from the 25 cadres, no reforms would be acceptable, he added.
Council coordinator Md Jamilur Rahman chaired the seminar, addressed, among others, by Jahangirnagar University history professor Mohammad Golam Rabbani, senior journalist and columnist MA Aziz, writer and columnist Firoz Ahmed, Gono Odhikar Parishad general secretary Rashed Khan, National Citizen Party education and research secretary Foysal Mahmud Shanto, and Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh general secretary Khandker Manjur Morshed.