A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study suggests a high-powered committee headed by the chief justice for selecting the chairman and members of the Public Service Commission (PSC) to make the constitutional body truly independent and transparent.

The draft of the study titled "Role and Capacity of the Public Service Commission as the Central Recruitment Agency, and its Current and Potential Functions in Human Resources" was presented at a roundtable jointly organised by the Ministry of Establishment and UNDP at BCS Administration Academy in the city yesterday.

The study suggested that the chief justice will be the convenor, while the members may include a

senior judge of the Appellate Division, lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties, representatives of the prime minister and the opposition leader, civil society, vice chancellors' committee, while the cabinet secretary will be the member secretary of the search committee.

"The PSC chairperson and all the members should be restrained from accepting lucrative public appointments after completion of their term," Dr M Abdul Kashem Mazumder, one of the two researchers of the study, said.

Stressing the need for specifying the qualifications of the PSC chairperson and members, he said that they should be selected partly judging by their openness to change, dynamism and experience of leading changes and their status

should be equal to that of the members of other constitutional bodies.

The current PSC responsibilities might also be split between two or three PSCs, for example - one for education and the other for technical cadres, he said.

The recommendations were made as the study found decrease in PSCs reputation in the recent years, lack of modern recruitment, selection and assessment practices and resistance for changes within the PSC.

Professor Abdul Kashem of the Jahangirnagar University said that the PSC should engage in a longterm project of fundamental reforms and capacity strengthening with the key objective of becoming an effec-tive partner in the human resource development process.

"But this requires absolute freedom from political influence, recruitment of high quality staff, modern recruitment practices and autonomy to manage its business within its areas of expertise," the public administration expert noted.

The PSC should move to a modern building equipped with necessary facilities and build a printing press on its own premises, Prof Kashem said. It should also strengthen its monitoring on question leak and hold the BCS examinations on time, he added.

Making comments on the study, Dr Syed Giasuddin Ahmed said that constituting a search committee would not be easy, as adoption of such a mechanism requires amendments to the constitution.

The chairman and members of the PSC should rather be appointed from the people of highest public standing who are detached from all political association, he noted.

But so far, mostly the university professors with political link and no experience in civil service management have been appointed as the PSC chairman and members, Dr Gias said adding "This trend must be stopped."

The comments of Professor Manzoor Hasan of the Brae University, read out at the discussion, noted that the existing PSC should be replaced by a new and fully autonomous and transparent institution to deal with recruitment of public sector officials and exercise control over promotion and disciplinary aspects of public servants.

Speaking as the chief guest, Ministry of Establishment Secretary Abdus Salam Khan said the government wants to see PSC as an independent body, adding that providing it with money does not mean snatching its independence.

He, however, opposed the idea of a search committee. "The society of Bangladesh has not gone so bankrupt that a search committee is

needed to form for selecting the chairpersons and members of PSC."

The problem in PSC is mainly governance problem, the establishment secretary noted.

On the controversial 27th BCS examination, he said that they would look into the matter.

UNDP Country Director Manoj Basnyat, Iftekharuzzaman of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), Public Administration Training Centre Rector Abu Md Maniruzzaman Khan also spoke at the discussion chaired by PSC Secretary Abdus Sattar.