Equal Employment Opportunity in the Public Service: Theory and Practice in Bangladesh

Abstract

Although EEO has considerable appeal and is often part of a nation's constitutional and legal framework the application of the principle appears to be far from satisfactory in most cases. Generally the gap between theory and practice of EEO is too wide—especially in developing countries where a range of factors influences the implementation of EEO. As a result, EEO has remained largely elusive in such contexts. This article seeks to contribute to the understanding of EEO in a developing country — Bangladesh—from theoretical and practical terms. Based on mainly secondary sources of information it shows that despite constitutional provisions and the presence of various rules and regulations to this effect, there are a variety of ways in which EEO principle is compromised and violated in the public service. It further shows that in recent times the administration of EEO has been frustrated and undermined further given the increasing trends of politicization of the public service and the high incidence of corruption and patronage in its management.

Keywords:

• equal employment opportunity
• public service
• the quota system
• politicization
• Bangladesh

Notes

¹Some of the rules include: Bangladesh Civil Service Appointment Rules, 1981, Senior Services Pool, 1979, Bangladesh Public Service (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1980, and Government Officers (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1985.

²It must not be mixed up with a related term — equality of opportunity. Equality of opportunity is a much broader term which ordinarily means equality before law. It is also used to mean a situation where each person has equal chance in a range of areas including education, health and welfare, employment, and political participation. Therefore, it implies fairness in the procedure so as to allow each member of the society the same access to social and political institutions.

³In the selection method tests and interviews along with other procedures are used. The degree to which these procedures provide comparable data over a period of time is known as reliability. It also refers to the extent to which two or more methods yield similar results or are consistent. Validity of the selection process determines what a test measures or other selection procedures measure and how well they measure this. It is an indicator of the extent to which data from a procedure (interview, test) are related to predictive job performance.

⁴The previous policy of allocating 200 marks for viva voce created loopholes and scopes for discrimination. Many members of the viva board were alleged to have misused their power through, among other things, bribery, patronage, and nepotism in selecting individuals for appointment. The recent decision to allocate 100 marks for oral test is expected to curb corrupt practices, but again it would depend on the intentions of the government in power and the members of the PSC who are involved in the process of conducting such interviews.

⁵As a result of such irregularities many donor agencies no longer rely on the ministerial process. For instance, agencies such as AusAid and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) follow their own independent process of selecting suitable candidates for scholarships for Master's programs.

⁶The ACR barely accounts for objectivity in the assessment. Being a confidential document it is neither transparent nor immune from discrimination charges (see, Siddiquee, 2003).

⁷The equality principle is violated even in cases where promotions are based on the combination of seniority and merit. Seniority alludes to the fact that in career and hierarchical systems promotion is deemed to be automatic and predetermined by a time frame for occupying each grade or position without any considerable regard to the performance. On the other hand, the criteria for merit are unclear as it mainly depends on the old merit list prepared for the recruitment exam. Thus, in the absence of any objective assessment, often a centrally formed selection board makes recommendations on the basis of seniority and performance reflected in the ACR that can hardly ensure equal treatment. Seniority can lead to discrimination by depriving the candidates of quality while the subjective nature of ACR criteria makes the same room for unequal treatment (Khan et. al., 1997).

⁸ The Awami League (AL) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) are two major political parties that have ruled Bangladesh for much of the period since it gained nationhood in 1971. They have remained locked in a bitter conflicts with one another.