Enhancing retirement age for public servants
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
Sajedul Islam
THE proposal for enhancement of retirement age for government servants including freedom fighters from 57 years to 60 years is being heard since long without any realistic step to implement the same. Recently though a proposal by the ministry for freedom fighters to enhance the retirement age of freedom fighters serving in government jobs up to 65 years has been placed in the upper echelon of the govt, but it is yet to yield any outcome. The government has recently formed a new committee with a view to scrutinising all such public administration committee reports and to making final recommendations. On July 30 last, reportedly in a meeting of the said committee, previous proposal of all the committees to enhance retirement age-limit to 60 years has been rejected due to strong opposition of some influential and young bureaucrats. It was said in the report that instead of discussion on enhancing age limit it was discussed as to how to decrease age-limit from present day 57 years to 55 years. If the report under mention here is correct, then it is not only surprising, but also devoid of practicality.
Then question is likely to arise whether the age-limit of those of various categories whose has been increased in previous days will revert to the original. The enhancement of retirement age has been done and is going on all around the world. It is not a new phenomenon for many countries including those among the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries in our neighbourhood. Moreover, in many countries of the world, there is no fixed retirement age-limit for the employees. The condition in Bangladesh is different. In some sphere, it is 67, in others it is 65 or 60, which shows a clear disparity amongst the various discipline of govt and non-government jobs and is amounting to violation of fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution. There has been a lot of letters, comments, articles, write-ups in the newspapers/periodicals justifying the necessity and background for enhancement of the same. Hence, the issue, perhaps, needs no further elaboration. So, the matter of influencing decision of a meeting in a negative way (as has been reported), if it is correct, is sad and surprising, indeed. Taking any decision on a touchy matter in such a way may harm the popularity of the government. It is learnt that during the tenure of the past two governments, some government servants got early promotion to higher posts and they are not in favour of enhancement of age limit, instead they are in favour of reduction of the same, so that they can serve a longer period by virtual exit of their superior counterparts.
In the aforesaid meeting, decision as per previous committee minutes was taken to keep optional retirement period as 20 years of service and involvement of financial matters thereof, was also discussed, which can easily be got, if the retirement age is extended. As there will be no retirement expenditures for two or three years, thereby millions of Taka will be saved and a portion of it can be utilised for the purpose. It may be mentioned that such a balanced posture was taken in the previous committee meetings keeping in view both the sides of the coin.
A proposal to extend the age-limit of serving freedom fighters to 65 years has reportedly been placed before the Chief Adviser on 16 May last, though a decision has not been given as yet. The proposal for extending retirement age-limit of govt servants had earlier been placed before the honourable Prime Minister in 2005 after due approval of the Cabinet. But instead of taking any decision/measure on the matter, the then PM handed over power to the caretaker government. Enhancement of retirement age-limit, as mentioned earlier, is a popular and independent demand of government servants since long.
As the proposal has earlier been recommended by the Cabinet and only needed the approval of the then PM, so the present Chief Adviser can easily give his approval to it. Besides, as the essence of various reports on public administration reform appears to be the same, so the new committee needs least time for its recommendation and not three months as has been reported in the press. The matter can either be resolved by declaring 62 years retirement age for Freedom Fighters and 60 years for general employees, or by declaring 60 years at present for the former and 59 years for the latter. After the change-over in January/07, those steps/measures taken by the government are usually reformative, rectifying or punitive measures. The popular demands need to be attended soon at the same time. Enhancement of retirement age-limit did not result in unemployment problem in the SAARC countries. As per surveys, there were at least one hundred fifty thousand to two hundred thousand posts lying vacant in different government departments of the country.
After the change-over of 1/11, it was expected that the neo-establishment will take concrete steps without delay to rectify past. mistakes. There were occasional news/rumours as published in the newspapers or periodicals regarding enhancement of the same, but finally it yielded nothing and the matter appeared to be a positive propaganda by some quarters. According to the latest reports, The Public Service Ordinance-2007 is going to be promulgated in respect of public administrative reforms. The draft proposal contains enhancement of retirement age for public servants in 3 stages beginning from 2009 (instead of 2007) at 58 years, then from 2011 at 59 years and finally from 2013 at 60 years i.e. on three isolated years. The Awami League in its 2001 Election manifesto included the matter as one of its 10-point programme, in which they also went for a three stage enhancement and the party chief then reiterated it for more than once. Therefore, such a way of implementation might create controversy as it was similar to the AL party programmes. The BNP, though did not behave in the same manner, however, pledged on many a occasion before and after the general election of that year to implement the same, but the latter put forward a two-year formula after having power thereby raising retirement age at 59 years. Hence, co-ordination of these two proposals may be the best arrangement, which may remain above criticism and controversy.
For that matter, enhancement of retirement age to 60 years may be in two stages i.e. in the first stage it can be two years and next it is one year and why the beginning in the year 2009? It should begin from this year i.e. 2007. Moreover, according to Election Roadmap, the general election will be held by 2008 yearend. The winning party may cancel the government proposal in this regard terming it to be a previous one. Therefore, the implementation should begin from this year. In view of the importance attributed to the matter, the present caretaker government should, thus, give soon approval to it.
THE proposal for enhancement of retirement age for government servants including freedom fighters from 57 years to 60 years is being heard since long without any realistic step to implement the same. Recently though a proposal by the ministry for freedom fighters to enhance the retirement age of freedom fighters serving in government jobs up to 65 years has been placed in the upper echelon of the govt, but it is yet to yield any outcome. The government has recently formed a new committee with a view to scrutinising all such public administration committee reports and to making final recommendations. On July 30 last, reportedly in a meeting of the said committee, previous proposal of all the committees to enhance retirement age-limit to 60 years has been rejected due to strong opposition of some influential and young bureaucrats. It was said in the report that instead of discussion on enhancing age limit it was discussed as to how to decrease age-limit from present day 57 years to 55 years. If the report under mention here is correct, then it is not only surprising, but also devoid of practicality.
Then question is likely to arise whether the age-limit of those of various categories whose has been increased in previous days will revert to the original. The enhancement of retirement age has been done and is going on all around the world. It is not a new phenomenon for many countries including those among the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries in our neighbourhood. Moreover, in many countries of the world, there is no fixed retirement age-limit for the employees. The condition in Bangladesh is different. In some sphere, it is 67, in others it is 65 or 60, which shows a clear disparity amongst the various discipline of govt and non-government jobs and is amounting to violation of fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution. There has been a lot of letters, comments, articles, write-ups in the newspapers/periodicals justifying the necessity and background for enhancement of the same. Hence, the issue, perhaps, needs no further elaboration. So, the matter of influencing decision of a meeting in a negative way (as has been reported), if it is correct, is sad and surprising, indeed. Taking any decision on a touchy matter in such a way may harm the popularity of the government. It is learnt that during the tenure of the past two governments, some government servants got early promotion to higher posts and they are not in favour of enhancement of age limit, instead they are in favour of reduction of the same, so that they can serve a longer period by virtual exit of their superior counterparts.
In the aforesaid meeting, decision as per previous committee minutes was taken to keep optional retirement period as 20 years of service and involvement of financial matters thereof, was also discussed, which can easily be got, if the retirement age is extended. As there will be no retirement expenditures for two or three years, thereby millions of Taka will be saved and a portion of it can be utilised for the purpose. It may be mentioned that such a balanced posture was taken in the previous committee meetings keeping in view both the sides of the coin.
A proposal to extend the age-limit of serving freedom fighters to 65 years has reportedly been placed before the Chief Adviser on 16 May last, though a decision has not been given as yet. The proposal for extending retirement age-limit of govt servants had earlier been placed before the honourable Prime Minister in 2005 after due approval of the Cabinet. But instead of taking any decision/measure on the matter, the then PM handed over power to the caretaker government. Enhancement of retirement age-limit, as mentioned earlier, is a popular and independent demand of government servants since long.
As the proposal has earlier been recommended by the Cabinet and only needed the approval of the then PM, so the present Chief Adviser can easily give his approval to it. Besides, as the essence of various reports on public administration reform appears to be the same, so the new committee needs least time for its recommendation and not three months as has been reported in the press. The matter can either be resolved by declaring 62 years retirement age for Freedom Fighters and 60 years for general employees, or by declaring 60 years at present for the former and 59 years for the latter. After the change-over in January/07, those steps/measures taken by the government are usually reformative, rectifying or punitive measures. The popular demands need to be attended soon at the same time. Enhancement of retirement age-limit did not result in unemployment problem in the SAARC countries. As per surveys, there were at least one hundred fifty thousand to two hundred thousand posts lying vacant in different government departments of the country.
After the change-over of 1/11, it was expected that the neo-establishment will take concrete steps without delay to rectify past. mistakes. There were occasional news/rumours as published in the newspapers or periodicals regarding enhancement of the same, but finally it yielded nothing and the matter appeared to be a positive propaganda by some quarters. According to the latest reports, The Public Service Ordinance-2007 is going to be promulgated in respect of public administrative reforms. The draft proposal contains enhancement of retirement age for public servants in 3 stages beginning from 2009 (instead of 2007) at 58 years, then from 2011 at 59 years and finally from 2013 at 60 years i.e. on three isolated years. The Awami League in its 2001 Election manifesto included the matter as one of its 10-point programme, in which they also went for a three stage enhancement and the party chief then reiterated it for more than once. Therefore, such a way of implementation might create controversy as it was similar to the AL party programmes. The BNP, though did not behave in the same manner, however, pledged on many a occasion before and after the general election of that year to implement the same, but the latter put forward a two-year formula after having power thereby raising retirement age at 59 years. Hence, co-ordination of these two proposals may be the best arrangement, which may remain above criticism and controversy.
For that matter, enhancement of retirement age to 60 years may be in two stages i.e. in the first stage it can be two years and next it is one year and why the beginning in the year 2009? It should begin from this year i.e. 2007. Moreover, according to Election Roadmap, the general election will be held by 2008 yearend. The winning party may cancel the government proposal in this regard terming it to be a previous one. Therefore, the implementation should begin from this year. In view of the importance attributed to the matter, the present caretaker government should, thus, give soon approval to it.