Permission a must to arrest public servant
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) will have to take prior permission of the authorities concerned for arresting any public servant, according to the Sarkari Chakori Ain Bill 2018, which was placed in Parliament on Sunday.
State Minister for Public Administration Ismat Ara Sadique placed the Bill in the House and it was sent to the respective parliamentary standing committee for further examination. The committee was asked to submit its report within three days, UNB reports.
As per the Bill, no public servant can be arrested until a court frames charges against him/her. A government employee can be arrested before charge-framing only after taking prior permission from the authorities concerned.
Under the provision of the new law, a civil servant will be suspended initially and lose his/her job finally, if he or she is given capital punishment or punishment of more than one year in jail for their offences.
However, the authorities will take departmental actions against them in case of a punishment of below one year's jail term.
Under the existing system, the service of public servants is controlled by different laws. There's no specific law in this regard. But this law will control the service of public servants and all the issues of their jobs will come under the umbrella of this proposed law.
The existing age limit for the retirement of public servants remains unchanged at 59 while 60 for freedom fighters. However, the government can send a public servant on forced retirement on completion of his/her 25 years in service without showing any reason in the public interest whereas any public servant can go on voluntary retirement on completion of 25 years in service.
Merit and open competition will be the main criteria for the recruitment of public servants while promotion will be given based on merit, efficiency, seniority and performance. If any public servant takes a foreign citizenship, he/she will lose the job. But in the case of dual citizenship, nothing was said in the law. A public servant will get financial support from the government to face a criminal case if it is filed for any cause while performing professional duties.
But if he/she is tried in any criminal case for personal crimes and jailed for more than one year, he/she will lose the job. Under the proposed law, the government can realise compensation from a public servant if any complaint lodged against him/her by a citizen is proved to be true and if any citizen is deprived of any service by him/her.
