Major admin reforms shelved for 27 years
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The crucial reforms to Bangladesh's civil service have been stalled for 27 years, largely because of the opposition of a section of top bureaucrats and a lack of political will.
At least 16 commissions and committees, constituted in the last 53 years since the country's independence, made recommendations for having an efficient, merit-based and service-oriented civil administration. However, most of those recommendations fell on deaf ears.
Experts say some reform proposals, which have been under discussion for several years, deal with a number of key issues including inefficiency and a lack of transparency. Those problems have been impeding the smooth operation of bureaucracy for decades.
"Most of the high-ranking officials are now more interested in extending their job tenure by securing contractual appointments. The majority of those officials lack professional competence. It is highly unlikely that they will take any measures to reform the administration."
According to them, reform is viewed as a threat to the status, influence, benefits, and promotions of many civil servants, especially those with greater authority. The government also does not want a strong and effective civil service.
A few recommendations by different commissions were put into practice at different times. Those include raising the salaries of the government employees, passage of the Civil Service Act-2018 and raising the retirement age of the public servants from 57 to 59 years.
Centre for Policy Dialogue, one of the leading think-tanks, in its four reports in 2013, 2018, 2020 and 2021 mentioned that "corruption and unskilled bureaucracy" are the two biggest challenges for the development of the country.
The constitution mandates periodic reforms to the civil bureaucracy.
The last time a reform commission was formed was in 1997. Led by ATM Shamsul Huq, a former secretary, the commission came up with several important short, medium and long-term recommendations, but most of those were never implemented.
Nearly 22 years later, the public administration ministry in October 2019 proposed forming another commission to create an administrative structure focused on service and development.
Shaikh Yusuf Harun, then senior secretary of the ministry, led the initiative and placed the proposal before a meeting of the secretaries' committee on administrative development that year. But the committee, the highest decision-making body of the civil bureaucrats led by the cabinet secretary, did not agree to form a new commission.
In 2021, then public administration secretary KM Ali Azam again sent the proposals to the secretaries' committee, but did not receive a positive response.
Former secretary Badiur Rahman said he does not see any prospect of reforming civil service anytime soon.
"Most of the high-ranking officials are now more interested in extending their job tenure by securing contractual appointments. The majority of those officials lack professional competence. It is highly unlikely that they will take any measures to reform the administration," he told The Daily Star recently.
Badiur, also a former NBR chairman, said only the political leaders can take measures now to reform the administration.
However, they do not take any such initiatives out of concern that the government would be in an uncomfortable position if the administration becomes stronger, he said.
"My faith in the political leaders has diminished after seeing and observing the last two general elections," he added.
Firoz Mia, a civil service expert and also a former additional secretary, said Bangladesh's socio-economic reality has changed significantly over the last two and a half decades, but its civil bureaucracy is still being run under the rules and regulations that are not up-to-date.
"Major administrative reforms should have been made a long ago," he told this correspondent recently.
The administration is still mainly run under the structure recommended by the Enam Commission in 1982, led by then Brigadier Enamul Huq Khan, an appointee of military dictator HM Ershad.
The Pay and Service Commission, led by Mohammad Farashuddin, in 2015 recommended a comprehensive reform of the civil administration, keeping in mind the international practices back then.
Officials who favour reforms argue that since the government is changing the laws and regulations framed during the army regimes, it should also go ahead with the plans to overhaul the civil administration.
This newspaper talked to at least 10 high officials of different ministries to know the reasons for the continued resistance to administrative reforms by a section of top bureaucrats.
Experts say a large number of "in situ" posts in the administration is a glaring example of the bureaucrats taking wholesale advantage.
"In situ" posts are filled up by officials who hold the same office and perform the same duties after being promoted. Those officials, however, get higher salaries and benefits. This happens because of a lack of posts at the top tier of the civil administration.
Such promotions have now become a regular practice in the country's civil bureaucracy and this is growing at the top tier. On the contrary, the lower tier has a less number of officials than required. This leads to an imbalance and subsequently affects the performance of the field-level officials, say public administration ministry officials.
They said most of the ministries do not follow its Table of Organisation and Equipment (TO&E), which details the number and facilities of the staffers and what resources, including vehicles, they would use.
"Most of the ministries have more top-level officials than they are entitled to. This will become evident if an administrative reform is carried out," said a public administration ministry official, wishing not to be named.
Firoz said the administration should follow a proper system so the officials do not get any chance to satisfy the whims of the leaders of particular political parties.
He said political interests, personal choices and opinions get high priority in Bangladesh's administrative system.
"This is not a good practice at all," said the civil service expert.
According to sources, some top bureaucrats are reluctant to set up a commission that would work independently to bring changes in the civil administration as they fear they will hardly have any chance to influence the preparation of the commission's recommendations.
The public administration ministry in August 2021 asked all ministries to update their organograms. Subsequently, different ministries started creating new posts -- from assistant secretary to additional secretary -- in an unplanned manner.
Giving an example of the manpower of the textiles and jute ministry, an official of the ministry said the ministry's workload came down drastically following the closure of 25 state-run jute mills in 2020. But the ministry made a move to create new posts of additional secretaries and joint secretaries.
Mohammed Mezbah Uddin Chowdhury, senior secretary of the public administration ministry, said they have already started working on developing a "smart administrative system".
"We are making necessary changes to the organogram of different ministries for this purpose. We are reforming and restructuring the ministries internally so that it obviates the need for a reform commission."
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