The government has taken a hard line against lobbying by ministers and members of parliament, in particular over the transfer and promotion of government officials.
Recently, a member of parliament and a state minister wrote demi-official letters, one day apart, to the same secretary recommending that an assistant engineer of the Education Engineering Department serving in Brahmanbaria be transferred to Dhaka.
Separately, the minister for power, energy and mineral resources recommended four joint secretaries in his ministry for promotion to additional secretary. Lobbying of this kind by ministers, MPs and other elected representatives, to win officials better transfers and postings, happens regularly. Against this background, the cabinet division has ordered departmental action against the officials concerned, treating unwanted lobbying over their jobs as misconduct.
According to sources, some officials and employees are getting elected representatives to recommend them for transfers and postings of their choice in government offices. The lobbying is sometimes done verbally and sometimes through demi-official letters from ministers, state ministers and MPs. The instruction to stop the practice was issued after it came to the attention of the top levels of government.
Inquiries at the public administration ministry found that after the fall of the Awami League government on 5 August 2024, the interim government transferred many officials who had held key posts. In many cases officials working in Dhaka or divisional cities were moved to district postings. Most of those transferred had been close to ministers and MPs of the Awami League era. After the BNP formed the government, officials close to the ousted government were also moved out of important offices. Recently, however, many of those officials have been trying to win the favour of BNP ministers and MPs, and many are using ministers and MPs to send demi-official letters to various offices about their transfers and postings.
On 2 September, Ekramul Bari Tipu, MP for Naogaon-4, wrote to the secretary of the education ministry’s Secondary and Higher Education Division recommending that Moniruzzaman Moni, an assistant engineer of the Education Engineering Department serving in Brahmanbaria, be transferred to Dhaka. The next day Bobby Hajjaj, state minister for primary and mass education, wrote to the same secretary recommending the same officer’s transfer. The wording of the two letters is almost identical.
The letters describe Moniruzzaman as an honest and capable engineer and say he and his family believe in nationalist ideals. They say he fell and hit his head while inspecting an educational institution under construction in the course of his duties, which caused bleeding in his brain, and that he is now being treated and followed up regularly by specialist doctors in Dhaka. The letters recommend his transfer to the Dhaka metropolitan area in view of his health and family circumstances.
Meanwhile, power, energy and mineral resources minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud recently wrote to Ismail Jabiullah, the prime minister’s adviser on public administration, asking that four joint secretaries of the 21st batch of the BCS administration cadre be considered for promotion. They are Zahidul Islam, Dr Amjad Hossain, Mallika Khatun and Mahfuzur Rahman. The minister described them as honest and capable officers and recommended them for promotion to additional secretary. The adviser then asked the cabinet secretary, as chair of the Superior Selection Board, to consider the matter.
Cabinet secretary Nasimul Gani said the government is very strict on the matter. Government instructions have already been issued, he said, and the government will take action if they are breached.
On 17 September the cabinet division issued a circular to stop unwanted lobbying over government employees’ jobs. It said such lobbying breaches rule 20 of the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1979, and counts as misconduct under the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 2018. It ordered departmental action against the employee involved in any case of lobbying, with the details kept in the employee’s dossier.
Employees can still apply on job matters through the proper authority, and the authority concerned must settle such an application reasonably within a month at most. The cabinet division has asked the authorities concerned to issue the necessary instructions to the offices and agencies under them in line with the circular.
An official of the cabinet division, speaking on condition of anonymity, said elected representatives at various levels are lobbying over transfers, postings and other job matters of officials and employees in government offices. With that trend in mind, the offices and agencies concerned have been instructed to make sure government employees follow the conduct rules.
Abdul Bari, state minister for public administration, said government employees must follow the conduct rules. Trying to gain job benefits through recommendations is against discipline and at odds with the conduct rules, he said, and anyone who does so will face action under the rules.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report