Bangladesh News

The government is going to rearrange the civil and police administration in two weeks through transfer and posting, and through withdrawal of officials facing specific allegations or having poor performance records, officials say.

Instructed by the Chief Adviser’s Office, the establishment ministry along with the Cabinet Division initiated moves last week and is now busy scrutinising field level officials to pull out those whose involvement might make polls controversial.

In the police administration, officials posted by the then Iajuddin Ahmed-led caretaker government would be transferred from their present stations.

“We have 10 such superintendents of police [SP] and 58 officers-in-charge [OC] who will have new postings,” said Additional Inspector General of Police NBK Tripura. He added they have backtracked on a decision of massive reshuffle in police administration.

“The officers facing allegations of specific misconducts or irregularities or showing poor performance will be withdrawn from the field,” he told The Daily Star yesterday. The police administration is doing the homework to complete the reshuffle by end of August, he added.

The army-backed caretaker government, which has hardly brought any changes in the administration so far, has asked the establishment and home ministries to bring the necessary changes before the upazila and national polls.

Establishment Secretary Abdus Salam Khan on Wednesday told a group of journalists that the reshuffle would take place in phases. “It’s going to start with the UNOs… But no massive changes will take place,” he said.

A three-member committee formed last week headed by Additional Secretary to Cabinet Division Zahid Hossain passed hectic days on Wednesday and Thursday as it is assigned to reorganise the bottom-level officials.

The additional secretary to the establishment ministry and the joint secretary (appointment, posting and deputation) are the other members of the committee.

The committee on Thursday found out four UNOs unfit for performing election duties after scrutinising the files of 12 UNOs.

Establishment ministry sources say the move to reshuffle the deputy commissioners (DCs) also started simultaneously. The DCs who were given postings during the previous alliance government rule but were not transferred yet would get new postings.

A senior official of the establishment ministry said officials, although small in number, will not be allowed to perform election duties and withdrawn from current workstations ahead of the upazila polls. “Withdrawing the officers is necessary for neutrality and avoiding controversy.”

He said an official, who was the DC of Bogra for a long time during the period of BNP-led alliance rule and was transferred later to another district, won’t be given posting in Bogra again.

Zahid Hossain said 30 to 35 percent of the 476 UNOs, who play a crucial role in elections, will come under their scrutiny and the rest will have new workstations by end of August. “Main changes will be transferring officials from one place to another.”

“The UNOs remaining in their work stations for about one and a half years will be sent in another district,” he told The Daily Star, adding some officials will be given appointment as UNOs for field level duty.

Earlier on Tuesday, Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed called five advisers to his office for an emergency meeting to discuss, among other issues, reshuffle in the administration before the two crucial elections.

The meeting asked the establishment ministry to begin preparations for the reshuffle since many DCs and UNOs are in the same positions for over two years.

Earlier in July, the Election Commission (EC) asked the government to execute a reshuffle in the police and civil administration by August to facilitate the holding of the general elections in a free and fair manner. But the process sped up only after the Tuesday’s meeting.

The establishment ministry sources say they, unlike the previous occasions, are not facing any pressure in the reshuffle process.

“The situation under the previous political governments and even the previous caretaker governments was different from the present one,” a source told The Daily Star.

Since the role of both police and civil administration is crucial to holding elections in a free and neutral manner, each of the previous interim governments had gone for massive reshuffle.

Sources in the administration say they are preparing the grounds for the reshuffle but everything would be done by the CAO’s approval.