The New Nation - Internet Edition

THE Bangladesh Public Service Commission (PSC) is reported to have finalised new recruitment rules for Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examinations. These new rules have been prepared for improving the existing rules with a view to ensuring the recruitment of the best candidates for government services. These new rules would bring about changes in the application forms, selection procedure, preliminary test, written examinations, viva-voce and appointment of the selected candidates. Under the present 28th BCS examination the PSC is going to select candidates against a total of 1720 vacant posts under 27 different cadres. According to the new rules, expert boards for viva-voce tests are expected to comprise editors of newspapers, bureaucrats, teachers of public and private universities and heads of corporate organisations.

BCS services are high profile jobs. Members of different cadres represent the government in their respective fields. They bear the responsibility of implementing government policies and decisions at different levels. At the same time they have to regulate activities of various non-governmental national and multi-national organisations. So, members of cadre services are supposed to have the knowledge, efficiency and vision necessary for shouldering such responsibilities. They must be talented persons, efficient and prompt. For some reasons, young people get attracted to government jobs in general and BCS cadre services in particular. Government services in Bangladesh give more job security. Service benefits offered to cadre service members are relatively attractive. So, in spite of low remuneration allowed in government services than those in private organisations, it is possible to attract the best talents from the society to such jobs.

But there appears to be some impediments to the recruitment of the best candidates. The quota system, felt necessary to promote candidates from certain backward areas of the country and sections of the people, may not be conducive to doing the best recruitments. Because of the quota system candidates with inferior calibre may get chance to enter the services at the cost of candidates with better calibre. Some cadre services like administration, foreign service, judicial and police services demand greater efficiency. Recruitments to these cadres through the quota system cannot be good. Leakage of question papers and alleged favouritism sometimes obstruct the entry of deserving candidates. The improved rules reportedly provide that applicants need not mention their contact numbers so that corrupt ones cannot communicate with the candidates. The PSC should restore its eredibility by taking whatever measures it deems necessary to operate a fool-proof recruitment system against which there would be no complaints. Competent candidates will then get automatically selected to important cadre services and the state would benefit from their efficiency.