The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) initiated has come out with a Bhutan Civil Service System (BCSS) reform that is expected to benefit 12,000 civil servants serving in the Supervisory and Support (S&S) category. The benefit will be faster promotions and less career stagnation.
Bhutan Civil Service System (BCSS) reform has been undertaken by the RCSC to attract, retain and motivate civil servants to achieve the objective of shaping and leading a unified, apolitical, meritorious and professional civil service.
Following nationwide consultations, the major problems affecting civil servants in the Supervisory and Support (S&S) category who are crucial for delivering public services were the following.
One was stagnation as movement to PS, P4 and P3 is based on entry and qualification even though experience matters in these positions. Another was limited career movement for civil servants entering at S2 and S1 leading to long number of years in the same position level since P3 is the highest Position Level they can move up to. This has resulted in low morale and motivation.
The third problem was overlapping position levels (PS, P4, and P3) between S&S and Professional and Management category, thus creating confusion in the Bhutan Civil Service System and complicating HR actions and management.
Therefore, in order to address these issues, the RCSC as part of the BCSS reform has extended the current Career Progression with effect from 1 st March 2016.
The reform is aimed to facilitate smooth career movement and delineate a clear career path across all position categories.
As per the reform the new concept of Senior Supervisor (SS2 to SS4) shall replace the overlapping Position Level of P3, P4 and PS.
An additional career advancement up to SS1 equivalent to P2 is provided for every civil servants in S&S category.
There will be a smooth career movement up to SS1 irrespective of the entry and qualification is approved with increase in promotion duration to five years for promotion from S1 to SS4 and above.
With the reform, as of 1st July 2016, 203 civil servants who are currently stagnated at S1, PS, P4 and P3 shall be promoted subject to fulfilling all promotion criteria.
This will benefit approximately 12,000 civil servants presently serving in Position Level of SS to P3 who otherwise would be stagnated. Further, the civil servants who have entered in S&S category and have progressed to Professional and Management category (PS, P4 and P3) will be remapped to SS4, SS3 and SS2.
However, the remapping will exclude civil servants who by ‘Vested Right Principle’ were placed in Officer Positions during Position Classification System. Accordingly, relevant Sections in BCSR2012 are amended and shall come into effect from 1 st March 2016.
