The government is moving to introduce lateral entry, or direct appointment, at the level of joint secretary to speed up the administration’s work.

A committee of three secretaries and an additional secretary has held several meetings on the matter and is now working to finalise its report.

The move, which came following the Public Administration Reform Commission’s recommendation, has sparked resentment among young civil service officers, though no one is willing to speak on the record.

Earlier, the commission, in its report on February 5, suggested introducing lateral entry at the level of deputy secretary and above. The report did not specify what percentage of posts would be filled through such appointments.

Lateral entry means bringing in professionals from outside the traditional civil service cadre — often from the private sector, academia, armed forces, state-owned enterprises, or other specialised fields — directly, instead of them rising through the regular recruitment and promotion process of the civil service.

The committee working on the matter is headed by ASM Saleh Ahmed, senior secretary of the land ministry, and includes the finance secretary, local government secretary, and an additional secretary from the public administration ministry.

Saleh Ahmed told The Daily Star, “We have held multiple meetings, and the report is now being drafted. It will be submitted soon.”

Currently, there are over 1,000 joint secretaries in the administration. For example, if the government approves lateral entry for 10 percent, more than 100 officers could be recruited.

Sources familiar with the committee’s work told The Daily Star that it studied lateral appointment practices in Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka, but found that such appointments were generally not well received there.

“We will highlight the pros and cons of lateral appointments in the administration, but the final decision rests on the government,” one of the sources said.

Another source said, “Lateral appointments cannot solve the administration’s ongoing problems. Still, since the government has requested it, we are preparing a report.”

He also said it is important to understand why the country’s top talents, upon joining the administration, get involved in corruption or fail to show their capabilities when needed.

Speaking to this correspondent, several senior officials said sudden appointments at the joint or deputy secretary level could create conflicts among officers of the same rank.

Officers expecting promotions may also react unfavourably. Lateral appointments could limit promotion opportunities for junior officers, potentially causing instability within the administration.

Top officials interviewed by this newspaper for this report believe that if competent officers are assessed on merit and skills and deployed impartially, the existing workforce alone can handle the expected level of administration.

Under existing rules, the president can make special appointments to 10 percent posts, and such appointments are already being practised by recruiting former civil-military servants, which is known as the “President’s Quota”.

A joint secretary, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “Irresponsible conduct by some senior officers has created unprecedented distrust in the administration. I fear that lateral recruitment could be used to bring relatives of powerful individuals into the administration, which would further weaken an already fragile administration.”

Officials at the public administration ministry say they have learned that lateral recruits are to be inducted into the administration after just three months of training.

An additional secretary at the Cabinet Division said, “Joint secretaries are promoted after 20 years of experience. It is hard to see how lateral recruits will perform well with only three months of training.

“They need to assess competent officers properly, while also ensuring that dishonest officials cannot enjoy wealth earned illegally. Only then will the administration be able to move in the right direction. Research by experts alone does not make the administration function.”

Officials also said they have no objection to lateral appointments to technical positions — bringing in specialists for a specific period in technical posts, such as scientists, doctors or engineers.

Another joint secretary said the government should carefully take factors like opportunities for corruption and politicisation into account.

“Even though recruits who enter the administration through the existing structured process come in through a transparent, bribe-free system, many of them still become involved in corruption. A lateral entry system could create unlimited scope for corruption and politicisation.

“It will also create opportunities for outsiders to enjoy bureaucratic authority, shrinking promotion and other facilities of the career bureaucrats,” he said.

Former secretary Abdul Awal Mazumder told The Daily Star that the government has failed to set good examples in transfers and promotions, which makes the prospects of the lateral recruitment initiative yielding positive results slim.

Many cite the American spoils system as an example, but Mazumder noted that the US no longer follows that approach.

The spoils system is a practice in government where political leaders reward their supporters, friends, or party members with government jobs or positions, rather than hiring based on merit or qualifications.

Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of Citizens for Good Governance (Shujan), welcomed the move. “In principle, introducing a lateral entry system in the administration is a very good initiative. At the very least, it should be tried and tested,” he told this newspaper yesterday.

“However, I don’t think the officers in the existing structure will allow it. They consider themselves to be the elites of the minds, though their performance no longer reflects that reality,” he added.

A senior official at the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka told The Daily Star yesterday that Pakistan had provisions for lateral entry in the past, but the practice is no longer in place.

The Daily Star’s New Delhi correspondent reported that India had introduced lateral entry into the Indian Administrative Service and other tiers of the bureaucracy on a limited scale in 2015. However, it remains unclear how many such recruitments take place each year.