118 officials promoted to additional secretary
The government has promoted 118 joint secretaries to the rank of additional secretary. The Ministry of Public Administration issued the promotion order on Tuesday night (27 January).
The officials promoted to the rank of additional secretary have been made Officers on Special Duty (OSD).
The promotions were granted 16 days ahead of the 13th national parliamentary elections. The elections and a referendum are scheduled to be held in the country on 12 February.
According to the notification, if the posting of any officer mentioned in the promotion order has already been changed from the workplace cited, the officer must submit a joining letter mentioning the name and address of the current office.
The notification further stated that if any adverse or contradictory information about any officer emerges at a later stage, the authority reserves the right to amend or cancel the order in that case.
It also said that the officials promoted to the rank of additional secretary may submit their joining letters either directly to the Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration or online via email ([email protected]).
With the latest promotions, the total number of additional secretaries in the administration has reached 403. The number of permanent posts of additional secretary is also more than 400. Due to a shortage of additional secretaries, one official had earlier been required to oversee several wings at a time.
Primarily, officials from the 20th BCS batch were considered for promotion. In addition, some deprived (left-out) officials from various previous batches have also been promoted to the rank of additional secretary.
Under the Promotion Rules for Deputy Secretary, Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary and Secretary, 2002, 70 percent of promotions to the post of additional secretary are to be drawn from the administration cadre, while the remaining 30 percent are to be considered from joint secretaries of other cadres.
According to the rules, a minimum of 85 marks is required in the evaluation. Officials are eligible for consideration if they have at least three years of service as a joint secretary with a total of 20 years’ service experience, or at least two years of service as a joint secretary with 22 years’ overall experience.