Staff Correspondent

The Ministry of Public Administration will meet on Thursday to decide the fate of the 227 applicants who were excluded from the final recruitment notice for the 43rd Bangladesh Civil Service examination for first-class jobs in the government.

As many as 227 individuals were excluded on Dec 30 as their re-evaluation reports were negative, along with the 40 others who had missed the health check.

A revised notification was then issued, confirming the appointment of 1,896 candidates.

Since then, the applicants – who had passed the examination previously – have held various programmes and protests to demand that they be reinstated.

On Sunday, the group collectively appealed to the secretary of public administration to reconsider their appointment.

A meeting on the 227 candidates excluded due to negative comments in their intelligence report will be held at 11:30am on Thursday, an internal memo at the ministry stated. The meeting is to be led by the Ministry of Public Administration.

A representative from the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, or DGFI, a representative from National Security Intelligence, or NSI, and the additional secretary of the Appointment, Promotion, and Deputation Wing have been asked to attend the meeting.

On Jan 25, 2024, the Bangladesh Public Service Commission had provisionally nominated 2,163 candidates for recruitment to various cadres through the 43rd BCS examination.

These 2,163 applicants were processed through a pre-screening by the Special Branch of the police and deputy commissioners of the relevant districts. Forty did not attend their health examination and 59 were temporarily dropped due to the agency reports, leaving 2,064 to receive appointments in a notice issued on Oct 15.

The notice raised questions from several quarters about the legitimacy of the recruitment. In order to re-establish trust and confidence in the recruitment process, to clear away criticism, and allow recruited candidates to start work with a clean image, it was decided that the NSI and DGFI would conduct a further screening through a re-evaluation of the candidates was conducted through intelligence agencies.

Accordingly, objections and lack of recommendations were reported against 227 applicants, who were declared temporarily unsuitable for appointment. Further scrutiny and inquiry was recommended in their cases. The 40 candidates who did not take their medical examination were dropped.

Following this, a new notice was issued recommending the appointment of the remaining 1,896 candidates.

However, the notice stated that if any of the 227 excluded applied for reconsideration, the matter would be looked into.