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Admin in disarray

Political influence of successive governments stalls much-needed reforms

M Abul Kalam Azad
Sluggishness has gripped the entire public administration, as all previous reform attempts towards making it service oriented have gone into hibernation amid mounting political influence of successive ruling parties.
With the present government also transferring. posting, and promoting civil bureaucrats allegedly based on political considerations, and personal liking and dislikes of ministers and rulingpartyjeadejsinsteadof t|^,perfor-mantes. rhe administftii^reseeftt*: dt^WAalidn disarray. 'I'ViVl iV.
"This has been the practice in me administration over the years, causing a major slide in morale and a lack of commitment among the civil servants,” observed a secretary of an important ministry, askingnot to be named.
In the 10 months of the current government, the administration has been reshuffled in such a manner that is encouraging the officials to take on a political colour and to curry favours
with ruling influential quarters for promotions or good postings at the cost of public services and their relevant responsibilities.
"Where the civil administration now stands, one does not need to work, but to maintain a lobby with influential ruling quarters," the secretary said when asked how the present bureaucracy is functioning.
He said the overall standard of the civil service is frustrating, where officials hardly take care of their responsibilities. "Still, there are some good officials who are. not partisan and ’hev^tonherdbout their polWffiWFftf'pronm tioT^’.^ijese persons are hdlifirigthe administration together."
Asked what steps the government has taken for administrative reforms, Prime Minister's Adviser on Establishment Ministry and Administrative Affairs HT Imam said initiatives to change the name of the establishment ministry and to redefine its role in collaboration with UNDP are parts of the reform initiative. "The establishment ministry's vision and mission will be redefined in keeping with the spirit of the liberation war in order to improve its efficiency, and to make the bureaucracy pro-people and service oriented," Imam, a former cabinet secretary, said.
The bureaucrat turned politician said the administration could be rid of partisanship, if the civil servants are competent and honest. "Inefficient officers get involved in party politics for personal gains," he claimed.
Twenty two commissions and committees have so far been formed in different times to streamline the bureaucracy, with almost every government venturing to form at least one such bodies since the independence of the country. They produced volumes of reports, but a very few have been implemented.
"Due to various constraints, the recommendations of those commissions and committees were either partially implemented or ignored totally. Consequently, the administrative structure has remained almost the same as it was during the colonial period," according to a report of the Public Administration Reform Commission (PARC), which was constituted in January 1997 with former secretary ATM Shamsul Haque as its chairman.
PARC submitted its report in five volumes to the then prime minister in 2000-'01 with 598 recommendations for short, medium and long
terms, but most of those remained in paper, except a few like pay hikes for public servants, and formation of the Anti-corruption Commission.
It also suggested that merit should be the basis for appointments, postings, and promotions at all levels of the public administration. But no initiative was taken by the past governments to implement such recommendations.
The report also suggested formation of three clusters of closely related ministries in Bangladesh Secretariat --general, economic, and sociophysical infrastructure - with officials of the levels of deputy secretary and higher. The socio-physical infrastructure cluster would be comprised of ministries that deal with social and physical infrastructure development, the economic cluster would comprise ministries related to the country's economy, and the general cluster would be comprised of other ministries.
The foreign affairs ministry and the law ministry may remain outside the clusters, the report added.
The immediate past caretaker regime also embarked on an ambitious plan to infuse dynamism into the adminis-tration, and ensure its accountability and transparency. A five-member committee was then formed for reforms, and for guidelines for postings and transfers at the central and field-level administrations. The committee was also supposed to give directives for career planning and improving performances of public servants. But that too went into hibernation.
An adviser to the last caretaker government, AMM Shawkat Ali, who was a member of the committee, said nothing can be achieved if the recommendations for administrative reforms are not implemented. "Those who are supposed to work for that, seem uninterested," he told The Daily Star, adding that no major work has so far been done to that end.
About the performance of the current civil administration, the former food and disaster management adviser said, "The prime minister has instructed the secretaries twice to expedite their activities, which means things are not going well."
Neither the process of promotions nor the performance evaluation system has been modified to bring in qualitative changes, as promised by the present government.
Establishment Secretary Iqbal Mahmood however told The Daily Star. "We have prepared a draft of the Civil Service Act while initiatives are also under way to amend the promotion rules to award promotions in a more transparent manner based on merit."
Most ministries and divisions tend to avoid administrative and financial responsibilities delegated to them, causing clogs in the bureaucracy, and affecting public services, an inquiry report of the cabinet division observed last year.
"About 75 percent of the stockpiled files could be cleared readily, if the officials concerned had exercised the
authority given to them by rules," the report mentioned.
"There has been a lack of transparency, accountability, and responsibility among the officers, and no practice of punishment for not discharging official duties on time. The result is — files continuing to pile up on secretariat desks as senior bureaucrats often tend not to use their discretion, and keep sitting on documents instead." said a senior bureaucrat.
The inquiry report, prepared by the then additional secretary to the cabinet division, Md Zahid Hossain, made an eight-point recommendation for infusing dynamism and accountability into the administration, after conducting a random survey in 11 ministries during the immediate past emergency rule.
Many officers in Bangladesh Secretariat, the administrative hub of the country, said the officers who are not carrying out respective duties, should be brought under a system of punishments. "The practice of not working should be considered as an offence," observed one of them.
Like the past governments, the government of Sheikh Hasina also initiated a fresh move in October in collaboration with UNDP to bring reforms to both the central and field-level administrations. A report on clustering the ministries, transfers, postings, and promotions is expected in three months.
"If the government accepts the report, then the implementation phase will come," said Shawkat Ali.