COMMENTARY
Published: 02:08 AM, 13 June 2021
Better bureaucracy
During the first phase of Covid-19 infestation, we remember one story that drew flak on social media in March, 2020.Assistant Commissioner (Land) Sayeema Hasan conducted a mobile operation in different areas of Monirampur upazila, Jessore. During the drive, she asked three elderly men, including a van driver and a vegetable vendor, at a local bazar to hold their ears with their hands in public as punishment for not wearing masks.She also captured a photo of the punishment and posted it on her official Facebook page.
Recently two other field level bureaucrats have drawn attention of the people for their weird actions. In Narayanganj senior citizen Farid Ahmed was fined by Sadar Upazila Nirbahee Officer Arifa Johura for calling for aid through the ‘333national helpline’. The UNO went there and found that Mr. Farid resides in a four-story building. Without judging his real condition, the bureaucrat fined the man who has no income for a long time.Farid was ordered to provide the 100 poor families with food. He borrowed money and pawned his daughter’s jewellery for the Tk 65,000 he needed to comply with the order.
In another incident, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Seema Sharmin fined a goat owner Tk 2,000 for eating flowers in the garden of Bogra’s Adamdighi Upazila Parishad premises. Poor woman Sahara Khatun, the owner of the goat, alleged that the goat was sold at the local market for Tk 5,000 as she could not pay the fine.
And we also remember the famous Sultana Sarober incident in Kurigram. Deputy Commissioner Sultana Pervinillegally named a renovated pond after her which was reported by Dhaka Tribune Reporter Ariful Islam. Failing to convince Arif, event after giving repeated threats and offering bribes, the DC conducted mobile court in the early hours of March 14, 2020 and jailed Arif. Executive Magistrate Rintu Bikash Chakma who conducted the drive arrested Ariful. During the drive, the mobile court said they had recovered drugs and alcohol from the journalist's residence, which was later found completely fabricated.
All these recent incidents tell us many things about our bureaucracy now. Being public servants, the above bureaucrats are insensible, they are not accountable, they lack sensitivity to the citizens, who actually pay their salaries and the government officers are happy to swing muscle using the state power.
If we categorize public perception about bureaucracy, the synopsis is like this: (a) the bureaucracy is inefficient in the decision making process, (b) the bureaucracy avoids responsibility, (c) the bureaucracy is not accessible to the public, (d) the bureaucracy lacks a problem-solving approach, and (e) the bureaucracy gives preference to personal interests instead of public interests.
Bangladesh now has a mammoth sized bureaucracy with hundreds of additional, joint and deputy secretaries being promoted every year without having scopes to post them in their positions.Reengineering, restructuring and reorganization of the government’s overall size is a longtime ambition as our public service system led by systematized bureaucracy, originated during the colonial era, is top-heavy in structure, coterie in thought, addicted to protocol and authoritarian in dealing with the public. In every step, it is felt that the capacity of the state to deliver to its citizens has eroded to an unimaginable low due to ineffective, corrupt and sycophant bureaucracy.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina always thinks of a bureaucracy that is efficient and corruption free. To prevent corruption in the public sector, the salaries and benefits of government employees had been increased by her government at a high rate. Yet corruption is the most pronounced word in every sphere of the government offices where the public service providers are involved.
Politicians always talk about a corruption-free administration, but they give little thoughts on efficiency of the bureaucracy through making the structure right sized and smart. Rather, people feel that a politician-civil servant nexus exists that leads to financial corruptions.A sustained and mutually respectful dialogue between the bureaucratic leadership and the civil society is necessary to make the former accountable to the citizens and systems.
The bureaucracy is an agent for the fulfillment of the policies of the government. Rigid neutrality and rigorous impartiality regarding political issues are the basis of official conduct. Democratic objectives would be impossible to attain in modern society without a bureaucratic organization to implement them.
Bureaucratization usually concentrates power in a few men and curtails the freedom of the individual, which is essential for democracy. Bureaucracy endangers democratic freedom but at the same time it serves important functions in a democratic society, which must not be ignored. Whatever the present state of administration, it seems clear that the art of administration implies democracy, which must be built on understanding of hierarchy as the structure of responsibility. The bureaucracy is an instrument to carryout public will, and this is expressed by parliament in the form of law.
The principles of Weberian bureaucracy seem to be in use in the Bangladesh bureaucracy. Our bureaucratic institutions are centralized and hierarchical, they are professional and impersonal, and the staff is chosen on the basis of examinations. These principles might have worked well in Weber's day when the tasks were relatively simple and straightforward. But the world has changed rapidly: the situation is characterized by technological revolution, global economic competition, free markets, educated workforces, demanding customers and severe fiscal constraints.
Bureaucracy has become too slow, too unresponsive and too incapable of changing or innovating. The disharmony between traditional bureaucracy and a changing world more or less causes the poor performance of government bureaucrats, who are biased, apathetic or unmotivated to carry out their tasks and responsibilities.
We can identify three kinds of problems with Bangladesh's bureaucracy. First, Transparency International reports indicate that Bangladesh is among the most corrupt countries in the world. The performance of bureaucracy in our society is ranked the world's worst, along with those of India and Vietnam.
Second, there are problems with the overlapping structure of bureaucracy, vague divisions between government functions and citizen obligations, and unclear political process of policy formulation. Third, there are problems with human resources quality. About 56% of public employees are educated up to intermediate level, 18% have Bachelor degree, while only 19% are university graduates. The main problem is low public service performance and excessive service cost.
Apart from the corruption issue, there are problems with the institutions and management of bureaucracy. Bureaucracies in both central and local governments are now getting bigger. In such conditions, bureaucracy become inflexible and slow in anticipating emerging problems. The increase of bureaucracies, in most cases, happens because the focus of institution formation is on the institutional framework, neglecting the number and qualifications of personnel, systems of decision making, systems of institutional communication and the span of control. Such an institutional structure tends to narrow the choice of strategies or, as the well-known adage puts it, strategy follows structure.
The management of public bureaucracy also faces several problems like (i) unclear planning of work and assignments (ii) inappropriate procedures and assignments (iii) poor enforcement of reward and punishment system, and (iv) lack of transparency in bureaucratic work performance, which causes insufficient feedback for work improvement. The neutrality of the bureaucracy is threatened because of the pressure of political leaders. This situation contributes to the unfairness and poor distribution of public service, which tends to fertilize the practices of corruption, collusion and nepotism.
Since reform of the bureaucracy is complicated and massive it should be carried out incrementally, following well-planned steps. All governance components should be involved to reach the goal, as it is very crucial both to improve the performance of public service and to regain the decreasing trust of people in government due to the unending multi-dimensional crises.
Poverty is a historical phenomenon, and only if economic development reaches an advanced level can it ultimately be eliminated. Nevertheless, even in rich countries like US, fighting poverty is still a significant issue. Public administration shoulders the responsibilities of redistributing social wealth through a number of means, such as tax policy, diverse welfare programs and other regulatory policies.
Bureaucracy has a large role to play in facilitating economic growth as well as ensuring social equity. The success of democracy and implementation of development programs largely depend on the public personnel/bureaucratic organizations engaged in building the future of the country. The administrative structure as well as organization has to be efficient, effective, dynamic, innovative and forward-looking in character. They have to be objective, fair and just on the one hand, and be within the highest standards of integrity and honesty on the other.
Efforts should be made by the authorities concerned to shield bureaucratic decision-makers from the undue influence of stalwarts in political and business power quarters. Regardless of the citizens’ grievances about the bureaucratic insensitivity to public interest, the country cannot do without an efficient bureaucracy. Political masters should think of pro-people work culture in the bureaucracy to end the rule of rent seekers.
The writer is a journalist.
In another incident, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Seema Sharmin fined a goat owner Tk 2,000 for eating flowers in the garden of Bogra’s Adamdighi Upazila Parishad premises. Poor woman Sahara Khatun, the owner of the goat, alleged that the goat was sold at the local market for Tk 5,000 as she could not pay the fine.
And we also remember the famous Sultana Sarober incident in Kurigram. Deputy Commissioner Sultana Pervinillegally named a renovated pond after her which was reported by Dhaka Tribune Reporter Ariful Islam. Failing to convince Arif, event after giving repeated threats and offering bribes, the DC conducted mobile court in the early hours of March 14, 2020 and jailed Arif. Executive Magistrate Rintu Bikash Chakma who conducted the drive arrested Ariful. During the drive, the mobile court said they had recovered drugs and alcohol from the journalist's residence, which was later found completely fabricated.
All these recent incidents tell us many things about our bureaucracy now. Being public servants, the above bureaucrats are insensible, they are not accountable, they lack sensitivity to the citizens, who actually pay their salaries and the government officers are happy to swing muscle using the state power.
If we categorize public perception about bureaucracy, the synopsis is like this: (a) the bureaucracy is inefficient in the decision making process, (b) the bureaucracy avoids responsibility, (c) the bureaucracy is not accessible to the public, (d) the bureaucracy lacks a problem-solving approach, and (e) the bureaucracy gives preference to personal interests instead of public interests.
Bangladesh now has a mammoth sized bureaucracy with hundreds of additional, joint and deputy secretaries being promoted every year without having scopes to post them in their positions.Reengineering, restructuring and reorganization of the government’s overall size is a longtime ambition as our public service system led by systematized bureaucracy, originated during the colonial era, is top-heavy in structure, coterie in thought, addicted to protocol and authoritarian in dealing with the public. In every step, it is felt that the capacity of the state to deliver to its citizens has eroded to an unimaginable low due to ineffective, corrupt and sycophant bureaucracy.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina always thinks of a bureaucracy that is efficient and corruption free. To prevent corruption in the public sector, the salaries and benefits of government employees had been increased by her government at a high rate. Yet corruption is the most pronounced word in every sphere of the government offices where the public service providers are involved.
Politicians always talk about a corruption-free administration, but they give little thoughts on efficiency of the bureaucracy through making the structure right sized and smart. Rather, people feel that a politician-civil servant nexus exists that leads to financial corruptions.A sustained and mutually respectful dialogue between the bureaucratic leadership and the civil society is necessary to make the former accountable to the citizens and systems.
The bureaucracy is an agent for the fulfillment of the policies of the government. Rigid neutrality and rigorous impartiality regarding political issues are the basis of official conduct. Democratic objectives would be impossible to attain in modern society without a bureaucratic organization to implement them.
Bureaucratization usually concentrates power in a few men and curtails the freedom of the individual, which is essential for democracy. Bureaucracy endangers democratic freedom but at the same time it serves important functions in a democratic society, which must not be ignored. Whatever the present state of administration, it seems clear that the art of administration implies democracy, which must be built on understanding of hierarchy as the structure of responsibility. The bureaucracy is an instrument to carryout public will, and this is expressed by parliament in the form of law.
The principles of Weberian bureaucracy seem to be in use in the Bangladesh bureaucracy. Our bureaucratic institutions are centralized and hierarchical, they are professional and impersonal, and the staff is chosen on the basis of examinations. These principles might have worked well in Weber's day when the tasks were relatively simple and straightforward. But the world has changed rapidly: the situation is characterized by technological revolution, global economic competition, free markets, educated workforces, demanding customers and severe fiscal constraints.
Bureaucracy has become too slow, too unresponsive and too incapable of changing or innovating. The disharmony between traditional bureaucracy and a changing world more or less causes the poor performance of government bureaucrats, who are biased, apathetic or unmotivated to carry out their tasks and responsibilities.
We can identify three kinds of problems with Bangladesh's bureaucracy. First, Transparency International reports indicate that Bangladesh is among the most corrupt countries in the world. The performance of bureaucracy in our society is ranked the world's worst, along with those of India and Vietnam.
Second, there are problems with the overlapping structure of bureaucracy, vague divisions between government functions and citizen obligations, and unclear political process of policy formulation. Third, there are problems with human resources quality. About 56% of public employees are educated up to intermediate level, 18% have Bachelor degree, while only 19% are university graduates. The main problem is low public service performance and excessive service cost.
Apart from the corruption issue, there are problems with the institutions and management of bureaucracy. Bureaucracies in both central and local governments are now getting bigger. In such conditions, bureaucracy become inflexible and slow in anticipating emerging problems. The increase of bureaucracies, in most cases, happens because the focus of institution formation is on the institutional framework, neglecting the number and qualifications of personnel, systems of decision making, systems of institutional communication and the span of control. Such an institutional structure tends to narrow the choice of strategies or, as the well-known adage puts it, strategy follows structure.
The management of public bureaucracy also faces several problems like (i) unclear planning of work and assignments (ii) inappropriate procedures and assignments (iii) poor enforcement of reward and punishment system, and (iv) lack of transparency in bureaucratic work performance, which causes insufficient feedback for work improvement. The neutrality of the bureaucracy is threatened because of the pressure of political leaders. This situation contributes to the unfairness and poor distribution of public service, which tends to fertilize the practices of corruption, collusion and nepotism.
Since reform of the bureaucracy is complicated and massive it should be carried out incrementally, following well-planned steps. All governance components should be involved to reach the goal, as it is very crucial both to improve the performance of public service and to regain the decreasing trust of people in government due to the unending multi-dimensional crises.
Poverty is a historical phenomenon, and only if economic development reaches an advanced level can it ultimately be eliminated. Nevertheless, even in rich countries like US, fighting poverty is still a significant issue. Public administration shoulders the responsibilities of redistributing social wealth through a number of means, such as tax policy, diverse welfare programs and other regulatory policies.
Bureaucracy has a large role to play in facilitating economic growth as well as ensuring social equity. The success of democracy and implementation of development programs largely depend on the public personnel/bureaucratic organizations engaged in building the future of the country. The administrative structure as well as organization has to be efficient, effective, dynamic, innovative and forward-looking in character. They have to be objective, fair and just on the one hand, and be within the highest standards of integrity and honesty on the other.
Efforts should be made by the authorities concerned to shield bureaucratic decision-makers from the undue influence of stalwarts in political and business power quarters. Regardless of the citizens’ grievances about the bureaucratic insensitivity to public interest, the country cannot do without an efficient bureaucracy. Political masters should think of pro-people work culture in the bureaucracy to end the rule of rent seekers.
The writer is a journalist.
