Speakers at a roundtable focused on addressing systemic disparities within Bangladesh’s civil service structure to improve efficiency, ensure fairness and deliver better services to the population of the country.

The panel discussion titled “State Reforms: Civil Service Perspective” was held today (November 9) at the Public Works Department (PWD) Auditorium in Segunbagicha in the capital.

The Inter-Management Disparities Resolution Council organized the roundtable.

The council was formed to manage the integrated activities of 25 executives through an organized framework to address these inequalities and identified several key solutions.

Addressing the event, Ganosamhati Chief Coordinator Andolon Junaid Saki said that if there was so much disparity within the cadres, then the cadre system was not necessary at all.

“The nation has been going in the wrong direction for 53 years. There is a significant colonial aspect within the administration, which has been hidden for over half a century. In 2024, we see a fascist-like system where , in metropolitan cities, the police can shoot at will, but who gave the police in other cities the right to shoot at its own people?

Saki said people wanted an administration that would serve the public, that would focus on human service. “I often hear my executive colleagues say that other administrations lack qualified executives. It is not because someone has entered the service that they have the right to a permanent job; it is not fair. As magistrates, we have become permanent, doing whatever we want.”

Soharab Hasan, co-editor of Daily Prothom Alo; Barrister Nasir Uddin Ahmed Ashim, BNP International Affairs Secretary, Dr Mohammad Golam Rabbani, Professor, Department of History, Jahangirnagar University; MA Aziz, senior journalist and columnist; Masud Kamal, senior journalist and columnist; Professor Md Abdus Samad, former president of BCS General Education Association; Prof. Dr. Muhammad Asaduzzaman, Director of the International Mother Language Institute, Abdur Rahman (Jibal), Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh, among others, spoke at the event.

The “Inter-cadre Disparity Resolution Council” recommended ensuring professionalism, timely promotion, upskilling and maintaining a mandate of precedence to reduce disparities in the civil service.

Members of each cadre should have the right to progress through the ranks of their respective ministries on the basis of their experience and merit, ultimately reaching the highest levels, it says.

It recommended introducing batch promotions for all cadres, with provisions for supernumerary and retrospective promotions where necessary, to eliminate promotion disparities between services and foster a better environment for the civil service .

He said there was a need to raise the ranks and create an equal number of posts for all cadres, as well as revise the mandate of precedence to establish equality of rank for all cadres.