The Local Government Division has moved to elevate the rank of 180 of 257 LGED assistant engineers, who were appointed for different projects and later absorbed in the revenue sector violating the rules, creating resentment among their regular peers.

According to the documents obtained by the Daily Sun, the division sent proposals to the Ministry of Public Administration and the Finance Division to give promotion of the assistant engineers of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) who served different projects before their job was regularised without maintaining seniority and following the rules.

“Based on 2011 guidelines on seniority and promotion of non-cadre officials, assistant engineers from projects and first-class engineers from the revenue sector can be absorbed and promoted,” reads a meeting note signed by the Additional Secretary of the division Smriti Karmaker.

The meeting was held on 16 May this year.

However, the Finance Division in a letter to one M Arif Chowdhury on 11 April this year said no proposal had been sent to its Expenditure Management wing about regularisation of the job of 240 assistant engineers.

The wing has also not been informed of the issue of the promotion of the assistant engineers, it said.

Citing 2005 rules of promotion and regularisation of government officials, regular engineers at the LGED appointed through the BCS see irregularities in the matter.

The 2011 guidelines show that officials recruited in the previous open circular will get seniority over the officials from the following open circular.  

“There’re ambiguities regarding the regularisation of the job of assistant engineers from development projects in LGED. The LGED rules don’t permit such practices. However, seniority has been given to engineers from development projects without following the rules properly,” said an LGED engineer, requesting not to be named.

This time, an initiative has been taken to promote these engineers without making any list based on the seniority, which is unfair, he said.

However, the authorities have taken the initiative to give 98 of the assistant engineers recruited under projects, who were promoted to the sixth grade in 2018, the fifth grade, violating the seniority.

Former LGED Superintending Engineer Shafiqur Rahman said there are some problems due to the influx of manpower from development projects to the revenue sector at different times.

“All these assistant engineers have joined following court judgment. The issue of promotion has reached the court,” he said.

According to LGED sources, 131 people in 2010, 109 in 2011 and 17 in 2013 were assimilated from the development project to the revenue sector following court orders.

However, they were absorbed in the revenue sector without taking PSC recommendations.

According to the 2005 rules, the PSC recommendations are required to regularise the officers who have been recruited to posts within its purview.

However, no PSC recommendations were taken in the case of these 257 engineers.

Former LGED Chief Engineer Sheikh Mohammad Mohsin wrote a letter to the Local Government Division on August 29 based on an application made under the Right to Information Act.

In that letter, it was said the opinions of PSC have not been taken regarding the regularisation of these assistant engineers in the revenue sector.

According to the regularisation rules, there must be continuity of service of the officers absorbed from the development scheme to be regularised in the revenue sector. But many of the 257 engineers had no job continuity.

In 2010, Wahidur Rahman, the then chief engineer of LGED, said in a letter to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives that at least 14 of the 110 people who received the court verdict in their favour were not working in LGED at that time.

Sources also informed that at least five of them do not have relevant degrees.

Former Additional Secretary Mohammad Feroz Miah said there were irregularities in the regularisation of the job of these assistant engineers.

“No job regularisation can be done without PSC recommendations. There should also be seniority list in case of promotion. The Ministry of Public Administration has to take a decision to resolve the complications,” he said.

In this situation, LGED regular engineers moved the court against the proposal for promotion of the engineers who have been assimilated through court orders.