The government in an abrupt move has shuffled positions of 22 Joint Secretary-level officials in the public administration less than a month before the parliamentary election.Two of them have been made officer on special duty (OSD) while 16 OSDs have been made Joint Secretaries. Also, four others have been transferred.
The Ministry of Public Administration in two separate circulars on Wednesday made the shuffles.
The Election Commission (EC), however, has not been notified about the changes.
It is mandatory to notify the EC if the government were to bring any changes to the administration during the time of election.
But EC Secretary Md Sadique told reporters that shuffles could be made even without notifying the Commission in some cases if the officials were not related to the elections.
“But permission [from the EC] must be taken first to transfer those who are involved in organising the election,” he added.
The main opposition, BNP has been criticising transfers and shuffles of administration officials even after declaring that the party would boycott Jan 5 general elections.
It has alleged that the government has been appointing officials who are aligned to it to important positions in order to influence the elections.
When approached, one of the Election Commissioners said no files regarding the administrative changes were placed in the Commission meeting until Wednesday afternoon.
EC officials said the Commission was being notified about the regular shuffles in the administration only after they were made.
In an EC directive issued on Nov 28, the Cabinet Division was told that after the election schedule was announced, officials related to organising the elections could not be transferred until 15 days after the voting.
The deputy commissioners of the districts and divisional commissioners have been appointed as Returning Officers and Upazila Nirbahi Officers as Assistant Returning Officers for the polls. – bdnews24.com
