The government is going to resume the recruitment process that remained suspended for the last six months due to COVID-19 by filling 4,00,000 vacant posts under different ministries and departments soon.

According to official sources, vacancies in government services have been increasing, as the recruitment process, including recruitment examinations, remained suspended for the last six months due to the pandemic. However, the recruitment process has recently started in a limited way.

Officials of the Ministry of Public Administration said out of 18,00,000 posts sanctioned by the government, over 4,00,000 posts have already fallen vacant a few months ago. The number has further increased due to the Corona crisis.

State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain said, government posts continue to be created, but the recruitment cannot be done as soon as those are created.

“If there are vacancies, it takes some time for the recruitment”, he said adding that recruitments discontinued owing to corona pandemic and steps will be taken to fill all the vacancies quickly after the situation gets normal.

The state minister said there are plans to reduce the time taken in the recruitment process. “During Corona period, the process for recruitment of doctors, nurses and health technologists was the fastest in history. We will also follow the same process in future recruitment”, he added.

Officials of the Bangladesh Bank said they were trying to hold examinations for recruitment to many vacant posts gradually. However, the plan is there to complete all examinations by December.

Several members of the Public Service Commission (PSC) said that hundreds of educational institutions are required to hold BCS exams for four to five lakh applicants in eight divisions. This is an enormous task. All the educational institutions are now closed. It is not possible to hold the BCS exams till they are open maintaining hygiene rules. However, examinations for some non-cadre posts have already started.

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said that the examinations for the recruitment for many of the posts of the food department will be completed in compliance with the hygiene rules. Several institutions, including Eden Women's College, are being contacted to fix the centres.

Mohammad Zainul Bari, secretary of the Social Welfare Ministry, said they were trying to complete the recruitment process for the Social Services Department by December. The DG of the Department of Social Services has been asked to conduct the exams in 64 districts of the country in compliance with the health rules.