POBNEWS24, Dhaka, Feb 11, 2025 : Officials of the Statistics Cadre have rejected the Public Administration Reform Commission’s report. On Tuesday (February 11), the BCS (Statistics) Cadre Association expressed its rejection of the report in a protest letter.
Although it has been proposed to restructure various services and their structures by reorganizing the existing civil services, only the BCS (Statistics) cadre has been mentioned as ‘not applicable’ in the proposal for the restructured services. The BCS (Statistics) Cadre Association considers this a short-sighted recommendation that would make this important professional cadre service ‘non-existent’. For this reason, the association has rejected the commission’s report.
The protest letter states that although the report submitted by the Public Administration Reforms Commission on February 8 proposed to reorganize the existing civil services and restructure various services and their structures, only the BCS (Statistics) cadre was mentioned as ‘not applicable’ in the proposal for the restructured services. The short-sighted recommendation to ‘de-exist’ this important profession-based cadre service created in 1980 in the submitted reform proposal has left us extremely surprised and saddened.
The association also believes that this recommendation is completely contradictory to the current interim government’s efforts to eliminate all discrimination and create a dynamic, people-friendly public administration, and the core anti-discrimination spirit of the student population.
The protest letter states that it has been proposed to impose another new discrimination by devaluing this service, which is composed of talented statisticians employed in BBS, based on the recommendations of the Reform Commission.
“Before making this recommendation, the Public Administration Reform Commission did not feel the need to seek any opinion from the BCS (Statistics) Cadre Association or any level of officials of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, as the main stakeholders, to identify the various existing problems and limitations and resolve them.”
“Even though the BCS (Statistics) Cadre Association sent some reform proposals to the commission on its own initiative, it appears that they have unilaterally submitted a report recommending the non-existence of a traditional civil service without taking them into consideration.”
The protest letter further states that the unfortunate tactic of keeping BCS (Statistics) cadre out of the proposed services in Bangladesh is an obstacle to building an evidence-based, non-discriminatory Bangladesh. There are also doubts about how much this recommendation of the commission can ensure a professional national statistical system. Because, on the one hand, in recommendation number 6.8 on page 13 of the sixth chapter of this irresponsible and short-sighted report, it is proposed to upgrade the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics as the ‘Bangladesh Statistical Commission’; on the other hand, in Annexure 5, pages 182-183, it is recommended to keep the ‘Statistics Division’ under the Ministry of Planning in force and to turn the existing bureaucracy over the proposed Bangladesh Statistical Commission.
It is said that in a data-driven world system where various countries are gradually modernizing and strengthening their statistical services, the farcical proposal by the Public Administration Reform Commission not to include the statistical cadre in the restructured services is contradictory to the spirit of the July Revolution for building a developed nation. The commission has irresponsibly submitted a report without providing a career plan and clear future directions for the manpower currently working in the BCS (Statistics) cadre service, which is an expression of negligence in fulfilling the responsibilities given by the state.
The association considers such a proposal to be an attempt to destabilize the national statistical system and an attempt to embarrass the current government.
The protest letter said that in this situation, the members of the BCS (Statistics) Cadre Association are unanimously rejecting the report submitted by the Public Administration Reform Commission. They also demanded the immediate formation of a professional statistical civil service to strengthen the national statistical system, taking into account the opinion of the BCS (Statistics) Cadre Association.
The demands are:
• The existing BCS (Statistics) cadre should be restructured as the Bangladesh Statistical Service in the interest of a professional statistical system;
• A separate ‘National Statistical System Reform Commission’ should be formed to reform the national statistical system and make it more people-friendly;
• The ‘Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics’ should be restructured as an independent organization accountable to the National Parliament instead of a ministry, to ensure accountability to the people by removing political and bureaucratic control.
The protest letter states, “We want a reliable, timely and politically-influenced national statistical system to be established through the formation of a strong Bangladesh Statistical Service. We strongly protest this vile attempt to make the Statistical Service, i.e. the profession-based national statistical system, non-existent and strongly call for the immediate withdrawal of the Public Administration Reform Commission’s report.”
