A COUPLE of recommendations that the commission on public administration reforms, instituted in mid-September, says would make are a welcome move. The commission has said that it would recommend the separation of the health and the education cadre from other cadres the way the judicial cadre has been separated from the Public Service Commission with the Judicial Service Commission. The public administration reforms commission chief at a press meet in Dhaka on December 17 said that the health and the education cadre would be separated into specialised services. The move by way of the establishment of separate commissions for the health and education cadres is expected to improve the recruitment and examinations of physicians and teachers the way the Judicial Service Commission does it with the recruitment of judges and judicial magistrates of the lower judiciary. The way the Judicial Service Commission does, the commission that would be established for the health and education cadres would maintain fair recruitment to improve health and education services delivery and would be responsible for the examinations of the cadres before their promotion to the positions of deputy and joint secretaries. The salary of the professionals would also be increased. The commission also plans to recommend putting the remaining cadre services into five clusters.
The commission chief also says that a half of the people to be promoted to the positions of the deputy and joint secretaries in the health and education departments would be from the health and education cadres whilst the rest would come from the administration cadre. A third of such positions are now filled with people coming from the administration cadre. And, the promotion would depend on the candidate鈥檚 scoring 70 marks in examinations. This appears a good step in streamlining health and education affairs as people with experience of working with the two cadres would have a greater say in health and education administration. Whilst the commission says that it would make such recommendations for a better health and education administration, it should at the same time effectively do something to head off the battle between the administration and other cadres in the government which is now largely dominated by the administration cadre officials. Another decision of the commission appears logical. It says that it would recommend dispensing with police verification for public service recruitment and other process. With the process for the issuance of national identity cards having been procedurally done, police verification for other jobs, such as public service recruitment or the issuance of passports, is meaningless unless the purpose or the job involves national security issues.
The commission on public service reforms should, therefore, make the recommendations to make health and education administration, now mired in malaise as a result of years of mismanagement, better in their function and service delivery. Whilst the commission should also look into other procedures and either strengthen or simplify them for effective results, the government should work on the recommendations in earnest.