The New Nation - Internet Edition

THE Public Service Commission (PSC), the official body responsible for the recruitment of government officials and employees at different levels, conducts public examinations for the purpose. It is the gateway to the vital services of the republic. Therefore, its proper functioning is crucial in respect of the quality of persons who are selected for government services. The PSC remains entrusted with the task of holding appropriate tests to ensure that only the persons who meet fully the set criterion in the selection process can enter the civil services. Understandably, the expectations are that the PSC would conduct examinations and related tests very scrupulously and efficiently to enable the fittest ones in terms of capabilities and character to join the civil services.

But allegations were made against the PSC in recent years that it has been seriously failing in these tasks and that the main reason for such a regrettable decline in its performance was its politicisation. It was again alleged that the top echelons of the PSC were manned by the people of the previous ruling parties and they were there to recruit such officers of the government who could be relied upon to work loyally for those political parties after taking up their government jobs. Charges were made repeatedly against the PSC for leakage of question papers of the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examinations to serve these ends. Even in viva voce examinations of the ones who passed these examinations, it was alleged in many cases that the candidates were questioned or subjected to tricks to absolutely ascertain their loyalty to the party in power. The ones who did not or could not quite prove such loyalty-convincingly-were shown to have not met the standards in the recruitment procedures. Thus, during the last ten years, a large number of recruits were considered to have joined the civil services whose main qualification was their unflinching loyalties to the ruling parties rather than their competence and academic qualifications.

There is no need to explain how serious are these crimes of perverting an important official body to turn it into an instrument for doing the bidding of political quarters. Not only the same represents grave immorality and injustice, the deteriorated performance of civil servants in most cases can be traced to such manipulation. Therefore, the present caretaker government has taken committed steps to comprehensively reform the PSC. But well intentioned insiders in the know of things are of the view that a thorough cleansing of the PSC remains a task not fully addressed. Till this is attempted, this vital body will not be effectively freed from the lack of ethics that gripped it long ago. The nation ought to make a refreshing new start in all vital spheres. The way to having a better civil service in the future involves carrying out deep and driving reforms in the recruitment system.