Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The heyday and glamour of civil service may have waned or at best seem
to be ebbing as a career for aspirants of tenured jobs across the globe.
In Bangladesh, two trends can be discerned for such a decline: first, the
rise and manifold growth of alternative career opportunities in private,
NGO, and other sectors, second, failure to attract the best candidates
to the civil service. Despite these trends, the civil service still had many
applicants and has allowed such an influx over so many years that it has
resulted in a service marred by mediocrity. Though civil service systems
across the world are organized in many different ways through recruit-
ment, placement, promotion, and conditions of service, certain features
are universal and make a great impact on the quality of service: recruit-
ing and promotion based on merit, efficiency, impartiality, integrity, and
public responsiveness.
The intellectual roots of the modern civil service system in Bangladesh
can be traced back to the establishment of the Indian Civil Service (ICS)
by the East India Company during British rule, and to reforms initiated
Part One
The BCS has thus also been shaped by, on one hand, the bureaucratic
culture and practices inherited from the civil service of Pakistan (CSP),
and on the other, the ideals of the war of liberation, a pro-people orien-
tation, and a will towards public responsiveness.
With its legacy from the ICS (until 1947) and the CSP (1947–1971),
the normative roots of impartiality, integrity, and selflessness in public
service were deeply ingrained and helped shape the character and profile
of the BCS. There is also a legacy of an elitist orientation, and some-
times civil servants have been blamed for having ‘colonial mindsets’,
unable to cope and act according to the country’s agenda for develop-
ment. The elitist orientation has been seen as anti-people and anti-de-
velopment. This is why, after independence, the BCS evolved along
more liberal lines. The government sought to curb the BCS’s elitism,
bureaucratic power, and its authority, thus to make it more subject to
political control.
British era The British era of civil service was marked by the beginning
of an administrative system and a system of government (Misra 1977,
p. 33). At the time of its establishment, the civil service had some element
of patronage, but in 1853 it started practicing merit-based recruitment.
Khan (2015) observes that the ICS was largely shaped by the adminis-
trative traditions of ancient and medieval India, for example, the use of
intermediaries in revenue collection. The Zamindars1 were given the task
of revenue collection for the East India Company as quid pro quo to
their Zamindari.2 The East India Company recruited various categories
of employees, for instance, apprentices, writers and merchants, and rather
than giving them a fixed salary, paid them according to their merit.
1 A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an aristocrat. The term means ‘land owner’
in Persian. Typically hereditary, zamindarsheld enormous tracts of land and controlled the
peasants who lived there, from whom they reserved the right to collect tax.
2 The system under which zamindars held land.
3 THE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM OF BANGLADESH 53
If you take that steel frame out of the fabric, it would collapse. There is
one institution we will not cripple, there is one institution we will not
deprive of its functions or of its privileges; and that is the institution which
built up the British Raj – the British Civil Service of India.
The meritocracy and patronage of the ICS made it a unique civil service
that became the epitome of the highest standard of integrity, impartiality,
and professionalism.
Moorhouse praises the superior quality of the ICS when he writes that
‘for efficiency and integrity, the ICS was considered as almost certainly
the finest civil service that man has yet devised. It bred honourable men,
even when it had not acquired them in the first place’ (cited in Rashid
2008, p. 45). Regarding the bureaucracy of India, Richard P. Taub
observes that the British maintained control by establishing various levels
of administration within the ICS, second, that rules were written to cre-
ate uniformity, predictability, and control over the decision-making power
of the subordinate Indian officers, and lastly, that with the centralization
of decision-making, it became necessary to gain approval from superior
officials (cited in Quah 2011, p. 78). Through the established system of
rules and norms, the ICS retained its character and nature of service even
after the British departed in 1947. As Khan (2015, p. 57) observes, the
image of the ICS was not tarnished with India’s independence; rather,
54 S. T. M. HAQUE AND M. MAHFUZUL HAQUE
The wide mobility, reservation of key positions both at the centre and in
the provinces, made the civil service attractive. The reservation of posts
for CSP officers elevated them to a privileged class within the administra-
tive hierarchy.
had ample authority to dismiss any officer from service without any right
of appeal. Rashid (2008, p. 50) notes that such arbitrary measures seri-
ously undermined the ethos and confidence in the BCS. Patronage and
subjective criteria for distributing positions compounded the problems
(Jahan, cited in Rashid, p. 50). This period was followed by a gradual
rehabilitation of the erstwhile CSP members, and after the bloody coup in
1975, the BCS started to consolidate power. The recommendations of the
ASRC were not implemented. Instead, the Pay and Services Commission
was established in 1977. It recommended an administrative top manage-
ment and specialist group drawn from various service cadres and the for-
mation of 28 cadres consisting of posts which would require appropriate
leadership, wide experience, and the capability to lead high-level coordi-
nation (Ali, cited in Rashid, p. 51). Later, the Bangladesh Civil Services
(BCSs)(Reorganization) Order of 1980 was promulgated to constitute
14 cadres and 28 sub-cadres under a unified civil service. Consequently,
27 cadres were created in the BCS as per the Direct Recruitment Rule of
2014 of Ministry of Public Administration, Government of Bangladesh.
Part Two
The BCS is organized into three broad categories: general cadre, tech-
nical and professional cadre, and general education cadre. The PSC con-
ducts recruitment at the entry level through an open competitive system.
Recruitment is a gigantic task, given the large number of candidates and
the amount of time required to conduct the tests, and it has been aggra-
vated due to irregularities in holding tests. After completion of the tests,
it may take up to one year before the successful candidate actually joins
the civil service. Given the upper age limit of 30 years for entry, and in
light of the time the recruitment process actually takes, a new recruit
who is 30 years old will probably enter the civil service at the age of 32
or more. As observed by the PSC, in 2015, it was reckoned that 69.84%
of the BCS recruits were 25–29 years old, and only 39.15% were 21–25
years old. Only 4.94% of the new recruits were in the 21–23 years age
group (PSC Annual Report 2015, p. 71). The extension of the age limit
to 30 helps university graduates overcome problems such as session jams
and frequent closures of higher educational institutions and to enter the
job market. It may therefore be argued that new BCS recruits are rela-
tively older than in the past. As Khan (p. 43) notes, the ICS officers in
British India were recruited at no less than 17 and no more than 21 years
of age. Consequently, most of them spent most of their career in mid-
level positions in a pyramidal administrative structure.
The allocation of total marks for the tests has been modified over the
years. The selection process now includes a pretest (200 marks), fol-
lowed by a written test (1100 marks), and a psychological and oral test.
Although recruitment is highly competitive, the various quota system
practices defeat the principle of merit. The basis for the quota principle
is stated in the Constitution—that there shall be equal opportunity for
all citizens with respect to employment in the service of the republic, and
that no citizen who seeks employment shall be discriminated against on
grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth.
The quota system was introduced in 1972 after independence. Until
1976, only 20% were employed based on the merit quota. That year the
merit quota was raised to 40%, and in 1985 it increased to 45%. Out of
the remaining 55%, 30% of posts are earmarked for the children of free-
dom fighters and martyrs, 10% for women, 10% for people from districts,
and 5% for minority groups. The treatment of quotas in the recruitment
process has become very complex in its micro-level management and
implementation. To ease the process of quota implementation, the PSC
recommended to the government that the quotas could be divided not
on the basis of the population of the districts, but rather on the basis of
3 THE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM OF BANGLADESH 59
the total number of vacant positions at the national level, and that the
candidates be given due treatment on the basis of a merit list in each of
the categories (PSC, Annual Report 2015, p. 45). To what extent the
different quotas have served the desired social goals demands review and
careful scrutiny. Khan (p. 125) argues that the quota for the representa-
tion of people from underdeveloped regions is liable to be contested,
and so also the 30% quota for children of freedom fighters, since they
amount to less than one percent of the population (keeping an estimated
total number of freedom fighters to 186, 790). Therefore, says Khan
(p. 160), the application of these quotas should be reviewed every three
years and gradually reduced to a reasonable level.
Though the need for rationalizing quota for recruitment in the public
service was felt long before, but removing the quota privilege became a
very delicate issue for the policy makers which needed a political solution.
In the first quarter of 2018, debates on rationalizing the existing quota
system gained momentum in the country at the demand and protests by
the university students who are seen as potential candidates for entering
the civil service. They demanded increase of the merit quota and called
for a complete revisit of the existing quota privilege. The demonstrations
by the youth were spreading in all the tertiary educational institutes of
the country which drew immediate attention of the top policy makers.
However, the movement was dissipated at the declaration by the Prime
Minister that all quotas will be abolished and separate provisions for
minorities and specially challenged population will be made. It is now yet
to be seen how this declaration by the Prime Minister is followed up offi-
cially to reform the quota system.
Khan (p. 176) notes that ‘despite all the trappings of an independent
body, the PSC in Bangladesh has gradually lost its credibility’. The provi-
sion of giving up to 50% of PSC jobs to persons without any experience
in public service has resulted in the induction of public university teach-
ers. Khan observes that many of these people are deeply involved in poli-
tics and often act as the main conduit for politicization (p. 180).
Since independence, different batches of BCS applicants have experi-
enced variation in the total marks possible for the competitive examina-
tions, differences in intake procedures, and the length of time allowed for
completing the recruitment process. The competitive examinations con-
ducted by the PSC have therefore been criticized based on a perceived
notion of compromise in the quality of those selected. Quality amongst
the batches varies due to the relaxation of the age requirement, the total
marks available on tests, large intakes, and skill mismatch. Skill mismatch
60 S. T. M. HAQUE AND M. MAHFUZUL HAQUE
3 Being an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) means an officer may be removed from a post-
ing and kept on hold without any assignment. The OSD period may be as long as five
to eight years maximum for some officers. Breaking the status of OSD could be hard, as
it may be seen mostly as a punishment, while short-term OSD may be meant for higher
education abroad, which may require being absent from work for more than three months.
However, an OSD officer may enjoy all facilities as per entitlement.
3 THE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM OF BANGLADESH 61
4 Lien is the provision that gives job security in a cadre when an official works elsewhere
Part Three
We have not only preferred to stick to the 19th Century colonial tradi-
tion in theory, but in practice we have chosen to vulgarize even these
[sic] through numerous omissions and commissions, under pressure from
different groups within and outside the government. As a consequence,
increasingly the wrong kind of people is manning the higher positions in
the bureaucracy.
Bangladesh. Tadbir is often viewed as a particularistic kind of lobbying made between indi-
viduals to influence decisions. It is informal and persists in a hierarchic unequal social struc-
ture. It manifests symptoms of neo-patrimonialism.
3 THE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM OF BANGLADESH 67
6 The Awami League is the present ruling party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party is the
system, irregular promotions take place and often violate the merit
principle. Strict application of the merit principle has often resulted in
suppressing a proposed promotion, but in the end, when people are pro-
moted regardless of their merit, the move becomes counterproductive.
Intense competition and rivalry amongst batches within the civil ser-
vice have also broken the esprit de corps of the BCS. This has led to
intra-cadre jealousy and competing interests manifested in side-tracking
promotions, particularly for positions in the higher echelons of the civil
service. As a result, a sense of ownership, loyalty, and solidarity within
the BCS has been seen to rest with respective cohorts rather than with
the civil service as a whole. This is often manifested through the strate-
gies of lobbying and mounting pressure to promote and place individuals
in key positions, thereby impeding the building of the esprit de corps
within the bureaucracy.
The decline in the reputation of the Civil Service along with the growth in
the ease and acceptance of graft, have created conditions of ‘adverse selec-
tion’- it is generally believed that many who have been applying for public
services jobs in recent years seem to be motivated less by considerations of
public service, professional pride, or prestige and more by calculations of
the possibilities for rent-earning.
Conclusion
The BCS had undergone an evolutionary process which has resulted in
its current state. It demonstrates some dysfunctional elements that often
overshadow meritocracy and professionalism. Although elitism has been
70 S. T. M. HAQUE AND M. MAHFUZUL HAQUE
References
Askvik, S. (2011). The Significance of Institutional Trust for Governance in
Bangladesh. In I. Jamil, S. Askvik, & T. N. Dhakal (Eds.), In Search of Better
Governance in South Asia and Beyond (pp. 91–108). New York and London:
Springer.
period, to conduct elections and hand over power. Such constitutional provisions have
been repealed.
3 THE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM OF BANGLADESH 71
Reports
Bangladesh Civil Service (Age, Qualification and Examination for Direct
Recruitment) Rules. (2014). http://www.mopa.gov.bd/uploads/2015/
archive/file105/sro-2014-231.pdf.
Bangladesh Public Service Commission, Annual Report. (2015).
Government Rules/Circulars.
Instructions for Posting of Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO). http://www.mopa.
gov.bd/uploads/2015/archive/others/fa5-2010-354.pdf.
Notification on Public Servant (Retired) Act. (1974). Ministry of Public
Administration, Government of Bangladesh. http://www.mopa.gov.bd/
uploads/2015/archive/acts/reg4-2010-45.pdf.
72 S. T. M. HAQUE AND M. MAHFUZUL HAQUE