Civil service needs a major overhaul
For the ordinary citizens, navigating Bangladesh's largely inefficient, opaque, and outdated bureaucratic system can be supremely challenging. The many obstacles and complexities that lie in the way of getting services can leave one not just exhausted, but also bereft of hope. The lack of accountability has also meant that while service-seekers suffered, and redress was delayed or denied, corrupt and often inefficient officials were rewarded.
Against this backdrop, it is hardly surprising to know from a report by this daily that at least 16 commissions and committees have recommended reforms to create an efficient, merit-based civil administration since independence, but those have largely been ignored. It is not difficult to understand the reluctance of the bureaucratic and political leaderships.
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For civil servants, especially those in high-ranking positions, reforms that promote efficiency, meritocracy, and accountability represent a threat to their influence, benefits, and promotional prospects. Political leaders also do not want to embrace change as it is easier to maintain control over a weak or pliable bureaucracy. The result is that Bangladesh's civil service is still run under the structure recommended by the Enam Commission in 1982, which today is unsuitable to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving socio-economic landscape.
Our report highlights several bids to bring changes which have been met with disappointment—except, of course, when it benefitted bureaucrats, such as salary increases or the option of "in situ" promotions, or posed no real threat to the status quo. It goes without saying that this stagnation of key administrative reforms has had alarming consequences for the country.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), for example, identified "corruption and unskilled bureaucracy" as the two greatest challenges to national progress in four reports between 2013 and 2021. A recent report by the US administration has identified corruption in Bangladesh as a major deterrent for foreign investors. The banking sector has all but collapsed due to the lack of effective governance. We can cite many such instances where the lack of transparency, accountability, and inefficiency has had disastrous impacts on various sectors.
This has to change. We cannot continue to be held back by the preference for short-term personal and political interests. What we need is a bold commitment to administrative reforms that can transform the civil service into one that best serves today's Bangladesh and its ambitions. The higher authorities must demonstrate the courage required to bring such reforms, and the formation of an independent reform commission—as proposed but rejected in recent years—is a critical first step.
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