Land registration officials lobby for not being promoted

Who doesn’t want to get promoted at workplace? Promotion is the recognition of one’s hard work, dedication and achievement and a cause for celebration.

While people make efforts for promotions, the employees of district registrar and sub-registrar offices across Bangladesh are reluctant about moving up in the pecking order.

This unusual development prompted the Inspector General of Registration (IGR) office to direct the authorities concerned to take stern action against subordinate officials unwilling to get promoted.

In an office order on September 14, the Directorate of Registration noted that some employees of the district registrar and sub-registrar offices filed applications expressing their unwillingness to accept promotions. They requested to be awarded promotion at a later date.

“The districts registrars concerned are hereby ordered not to accept such applications and inform such employees that they will lose eligibility to get promotions in the future and keep notes in the gradation list beside their names,” the office order said.

“Departmental actions will be taken against such employees, if required,” it said.

IGR Shahidul Alam Zinuk told The Business Post that it was a long pending problem that some officials holding certain positions refused to get promoted.

“Promotions cannot be dependent on one’s wishes. One is bound to accept promotion when the authorities concerned offer them. Refusal to accept promotion will make an employee ineligible for the future elevation of ranks,” he said.

Transparency International Bangladesh Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said the trend was “very much unusual” and that the authorities concerned should investigate it.

“They (the employees) are obviously getting illegal benefits from their current positions, discouraging them from changing chairs,” he said. Officials said that the problem was acute.

The authorities concerned want to promote Extra-Moharars to TC Moharars and Moharars to office assistants.

They said many are unwilling to get promotions that offer better salaries.

An Extra-Moharar, a non-revenue post, is promoted to Mohorar and TC-Moharar. But the Extra-Mohorars applied to the authorities concerned, requesting not to promote them citing lame excuses such as sickness.

Some sub-registrars told The Business Post that Extra-Moharars do not get any monthly salary from the government. According to rules, they get Tk 24 for copying a page in Bangla and Tk 36 for copying a page in English.

Extra-Moharars have scopes to earn illegal money as they are connected with the registration process directly.

Moharars are closely linked to the registration process while TC Moharar check whether taxes of local government agencies were collected or not. The latter is a desk job offering fewer opportunities for irregularities, officials said.

They said Moharars have huge scopes for corruption, which makes the post lucrative.

Some sub-registrars are also unwilling to be promoted to District Registrar, officials said. But currently all 61 District Registrar posts are occupied. The government has about 500 Sub-Registrars across the country.

Gazipur District Registrar Ohidul Islam said that the problem was disproportionate in the sub-registrar offices.

He said he would take action after getting the order.