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eventually be promoted, a senior official at the public administration told The Daily Star, seeking anonymity.

Public administration experts have raised questions about the government move, saying the government must explain to the public why these retired officials are now being rewarded with retrospective promotions.

Firoz Miah, a former additional secretary, said, “There are no explanations as to why certain individuals are being promoted while others are excluded. The authorities must be held accountable for spending public money in such a manner.”

Retrospective promotions mean officials are granted new rank and increased salaries effective from past dates, regardless of whether they are in service. Retired officials receiving such promotions are awarded financial benefits from public funds without serving a single day in the promoted roles.

According to Finance Division data, the government is incurring an additional expenditure of Tk 42 crore to cover the benefits of 764 officers promoted retrospectively last December. They will also receive enhanced pensions for the rest of their lives.

“A political government may use such promotions as a tool to create sycophant bureaucrats. But why is this government following that path? Such decisions weaken the administration,” said a former official from the information cadre on the condition of anonymity.

“It’s unbelievable how former cadre officials are being promoted. This interim government is outdoing even the past political regimes in terms of retrospective promotions,” said an official from the Cabinet Division.

Echoing the official’s opinion, a senior assistant secretary said, “The move to promote a large number of former officials is unjustifiable. Offering such benefits exclusively to cadre officials does not serve public interest. This kind of decision will only deepen people’s mistrust of cadre officials.”

Former secretary and writer Abdul Awal Mazumder said that if the previous government had deprived competent and qualified officials, then it’s obvious that many unqualified people were promoted.

“Has this government taken any steps to demote those unqualified individuals? If they are demoted and public money they received as benefits is recovered, only then retrospective promotions can be considered.” he told The Daily Star.

“In the past, governments occasionally allowed retrospective promotions for one or two individuals. But the current government is turning that exception into practice. This will stand as an extremely bad and controversial precedent for the future.”

Responding to a query, Mazumder said the term “public interest” should not be cited in a government gazette to justify retrospective promotions, as such decisions have nothing to do with public interest.

Contacted, Mokhles Ur Rahman, senior secretary at the public administration ministry, said, “During the past government’s tenure, many deserving officials were deprived of promotions while unqualified ones were promoted. This government is considering retrospective promotions to address that injustice.”