Nearly 4.7 lakh govt posts vacant at end of 2023, recruitment delays blamed

Highlights:

• Key reasons include slow hiring processes, legal issues, and lack of recruitment approvals despite post clearance
• The highest number of vacancies are in lower and mid-level posts, with Grade 20 alone having over 79,000 empty positions
• Male-to-female employee ratio stands at 2.5:1, showing little change from the previous year
• Election-year disruptions and ongoing retirements are expected to increase vacancies further

As of 31 December 2023, a staggering 4,68,220 government posts across various ministries, divisions, and their subordinate offices remained vacant, accounting for 24.30% of the total approved positions.

This information comes from the 'Statistics of Public Servants, 2024,' published by the Ministry of Public Administration today (30 June).

The report, which presents data up to the end of 2023, highlights that these vacancies are mainly due to delays in recruitment processes, legal complications, lack of approval for recruitment despite post approval, and other complexities within the hiring system.

While the number remains significant, there has been a slight decrease compared to the previous year. According to the 'Statistics of Government Servants, 2023,' published last year, there were 4,73,001 vacant posts as of 31 December 2022. This shows a reduction of 4,781 vacancies within a year. 

The highest number of vacancies was recorded in 2021, exceeding 5 lakh, followed by a decline.

The 'Statistics of Public Servants' is an annual publication providing comprehensive data on approved posts, vacant positions, and the existing workforce across all government entities, including ministries, divisions, offices, directorates, autonomous bodies, corporations, bureaus, boards, and their field offices at division, district, and upazila levels.

As of 31 December 2023, the total number of approved posts stood at 19,19,111. Of these, 14,50,891 posts were filled. The gender breakdown shows a significant disparity, with 10,39,100 male and 4,11,791 female employees, resulting in a male-to-female ratio of 2.5:1. 

This ratio remains consistent with the data from 31 December 2022, which reported 10,34,450 male and 4,09,068 female employees out of 14,43,518 existing employees from 19,16,519 approved posts.

The number of vacant government posts has fluctuated over the past years—3,93,247 in 2017, 3,87,338 in 2018, 3,80,955 in 2019, 3,58,125 in 2020, and a peak of 5,03,333 in 2021.

The Bangladesh Public Service Commission (PSC) is responsible for recruiting gazetted posts from grade 1 to 12, while ministries and divisions directly handle recruitment for posts from grade 13 to 20.

Officials attribute the persistent vacancies mainly to delays in recruitment. The majority of these vacant positions fall within grades 10 to 20. Specifically, grade 20 has the highest number of vacancies with 79,151 posts, followed by grade 10 with 71,797 vacant posts. These vacancies are mostly found in offices, directorates, autonomous bodies, and corporations.

In contrast, grade-1 (secretary level) positions have more personnel than approved posts. Senior officials explain that this surplus results from contractual appointments, often influenced by political considerations.

Looking ahead, officials anticipate a further increase in vacancies by the end of 2024. This is largely due to the national parliamentary election held at the beginning of 2024 and the government change on 5 August, following a student movement in July. These events disrupted normal recruitment activities while retirements continued as usual.

They also believe that promotions to higher positions, alongside contractual appointments, are contributing to overstaffing in grade-1 and other senior positions.