A section of government officials is getting promotion just before retirement, in a practice which does not benefit the state and people at all.

After retirement, the officials enjoy enhanced pensions and can work for other companies or the government.

Mustakim Billah Faruqui, director general of the Narcotics Control Department, was promoted to secretary on 8 May, just two days before his retirement.

He has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) by promotion order, without being assigned to any new position due to limited remaining tenure.

Faruqui is not the only one who has benefitted from a promotion just before retirement.

Like him, many others who were promoted before retiring have been appointed on contract to high-ranking government positions. Many have secured prominent positions in private organisations using their last designation.

Officers become eligible for promotion to the secretary position after serving as additional secretary for two satisfactory years. The promotion to secretary is recommended by the Superior Selection Board (SSB), chaired by the cabinet secretary, and requires approval from the President and Prime Minister.

There is no rule specifying the number of remaining days in service before one can be promoted to other positions, including secretary.

However, officials get greater retirement financial benefits by securing promotions before retiring from the job. Yet, the question remains – what is the benefit to the government?

Md Khairul Islam, who served as additional secretary attached to the local government division, was promoted to secretary on 2 July 2023.

Upon the conclusion of tenure, he was not posted to any new ministry, department, or office where officers of the secretary rank are typically assigned. Instead, he was made an OSD as per the promotion order.

BCS Audit and Accounts cadre officer Khairul was in charge of Assistant Private Secretary (APS-1) to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. After retiring as secretary, he was appointed as executive member of the Investment Development Authority (BIDA) on 1 October 2023 on a one-year contract.

According to the BIDA Act, the executive members of the organisation are to be appointed from among the officers of the additional secretary or above level of the government. Although there is a provision to appoint additional secretaries to this post, only retired secretaries are being appointed to that post.

Mostafizur Rahman has been appointed as senior secretary of the Public Security Division of the home ministry on 23 May last year, the day before he was sent to retire.

On 4 February 2015, the government promoted Dilruba, an additional secretary at the public administration ministry, to the position of secretary. However, she was made OSD on the same day due to insufficient tenure, resulting in her not being assigned to any secretary’s office.

Before retirement, some officials were promoted to secretary, additional secretary, or joint secretary.

The Ministry of Public Administration does not have records of how many officials have been promoted in this manner.

Seeking anonymity, an additional secretary said that if there are 150 officers in a batch of the administration cadre, then an additional percentage of officers from other cadres join them.

Among them, around 70 officers become eligible for promotion to the secretary position. However, it is observed that only a few actually get the promotion.

The additional secretary talked to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina about it. She said it is better not to appoint someone as secretary if they have less than two years of tenure left before retirement.

Benefits for newly promoted secretaries

The basic salary of a secretary is Tk78,000 while the maximum basic salary for an additional secretary is Tk76,490, as per the government salary structure.