In its plan for Bangladesh's public administration reforms, the WB also suggested a separate pay scale, code of conduct and promotion mechanism for the special service pool.

The WB, which sent its Public Administration and Governance Policy Notes to the government last month, sought the government's opinion about these suggestions, sources said.

But the high-ups of different ministries who have discussed and examined the WB notes, opposed the suggestion to incorporate private sector managers into the pool, the sources added.

The pool will be tagged as a condition for aid disbursement under the Country Assistance Strategy of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Department for International Development Fund (DFID), Japan and WB.

The WB has proposed the formation of the special pool styled as 'Senior Civil Service' (SCS) with the senior government officials from the level of secretary down to deputy secretary.

"The Senior Civil Service should be open to all cadres, and not just the administration cadre of Bangladesh Civil Service," says the policy note adding that a pool of 1,200-1,300 officials can easily be managed.

Quotas should be phased out as soon as possible and efforts should be made to attract qualified professionals and managers from outside the civil service, the WB suggested.

WB Country Director Christine I Wallich in a letter attached to the policy note also suggested opening the service to competitive lateral entry from the private sector at different stages.

"This would require reform of the present recruitment, transfer and promotion systems with more transparent procedures and a role for external peer reviewers," Wallich observed.

The policy note said to complement the SCS and ensure that its members are held accountable for results, ministries and departments should be required to prepare strategic plans and annual reports.

"A fast track promotion mechanism should be considered to accelerate the careers of exceptionally able officers, and feed them into the SCS, once some experience has been gained," says the note.

A special code of conduct for the SCS should be developed, expressing both its core values and conflict of interest rules. "If SCS is to work well and avoid temptations of rent-seeking, it has to be better rewarded, and so a new pay policy should be developed," the WB suggested.

"This should be based on decompressing the compensation structure and adequately remunerating officials at the top grades".The issue is more political than fiscal, since decompressing the top end of the pay scales is much more affordable than an across-the-board increase in pay."

A number of ministries have already discussed the policy note and opposed the idea of recruiting members of the SCS from the private sector. A senior official of the Ministry of Establishment told The Daily Star that such a service pool can be formed with efficient officials of the government.

"The government has been suffering from shortage of efficient officials at the top level which forces it to award frequent contractual appointments of secretaries," he said, preferring anonymity.

However, a member of the recent Pay Commission supported the WB proposal and said, "It will bring positive impact on the civil administration if members of the pool are chosen without political bias."

Sources in the WB said the move is to halt politicisation in the administration and to bring some efficient, talented and experienced members in the administration.

Talking to a number of senior government officials it was learnt that every successive government considers the officials' political loyalty instead of their performances while promoting them.

"This bad practice has created a vacuum of efficient and competent officials at the top levels," one high official said.

An official of the Economic Relations Division said four key donors in their future assistance under the PRSP also set a condition asking the government to bring reforms in the public administration.

"Before giving aid under the PRSP, donors wanted to know from the government the time limit of the administrative reforms, that include forming a senior civil service pool," the official said.

Wallich in the letter said a highly professional public administration at all levels is crucial to improving governance in Bangladesh and contributing to the country's development, including achieving the PRSP goals.

"A carefully designed and sequenced set of reforms could help create such an effective public administration," the WB country director observed.