The dysfunctional in administration

Civil Service Management in Bangladesh
An Agenda for Policy Reform
A.M.M. Shawkat Ali
The University Press Limited

The development process at fundamental levels presupposes the existence of skilled personnel and effective management to ensure that the personnel involved can put in their best efforts toward achieving successfully the targeted development objectives. But Bangladesh seems to be unfortunate on both counts. The assumption that Bangladesh lacks skilled personnel is becoming increasingly clear because of its persistent inability to get out of the low growth trap. This is largely due to the inefficiencies of public sector officialdom and workforce, and their inability to plan and manage the development and service delivery process.
It is not that everyone in the public service is inefficient and averse to work. In fact, there are many highly competent public servants but they cannot render their best because of the dysfunctional practices in civil service management persisting since liberation. More specifically, together with persistent sectarian discontent within the civil bureaucracy, post-independence evils that have been flowing from nepotism and political interference in civil service management seem to have seriously undermined the efficacy of this country's governance system. During the past three decades and a half governments changed or were toppled, two powerful presidents were assassinated, and constitutional emphases repeatedly altered. Democracy was subverted, then partially restored, and finally reintroduced but with omnipotent political leaders at the helm of state.
At least as important as the foregoing events, however, is the continuation of a state of economy in which the poorer sections of the population have become increasingly marginalised. Lopsided socio-economic development as such invariably negates an essential condition of good governance. But Bangladesh can no longer remain captive to such a state of affairs in this competitive global world standing on the threshold of the twenty-first century. The emphasis of government activity has to be on economic development. One must also admit that a stable state of economy in a country like Bangladesh is inextricably linked to balanced economic development overseen by a skilled, contented, effectively managed civil bureaucracy. How to facilitate the growth of such a civil service is one of the broad issues addressed in the book, written by Dr A.M.M. Shawkat Ali, a former senior civil servant but now a researcher of the highest grade, under review.
Dr Ali already has a number of scholarly publications to his credit in the field of public administration. But this latest work can be rated to be unique considering its two distinctive features. First, the work seems fairly comprehensive because every important aspect of Bangladesh's civil service management, from the rationale of manpower planning and conditions affecting civil service recruitment to the desirability of fixing public service compensation package matching that of the private sector, is covered in depth manner in the book. Attention is also given to conditions in civil service management both in the historical and comparative context. No other book published in this country embraces the totality of elements involved in the management of civil servants, as well as with their relation to their environment and to the public interest. Second, while the book draws upon all the usual sources available to scholars, laced through its interstices are insights and judgements based on the author's long and varied experience from worm's eye to eagle's nest vantage points - as a civil servant in Pakistan before liberation and then in Bangladesh. He held important positions in the Bangladesh Secretariat and outside, including the post of secretary of the ministry of establishment, the key central agency in charge of managing the civil service in Bangladesh. Therefore, the book under review seems to be a product based very much upon its author's direct and extensive "inside" experience, but displaying all the makings of an outstanding scholarly work.
The book consists of ten chapters apart from an introductory note that clarifies the conceptual basis of civil service management in a cross-cultural context, followed by the author's opening comments in brief on the topics treated chapter-wise in the remainder of the book. As many as ten important aspects of civil service management have been identified, analysed and evaluated in depth in these chapters with suggested actions for the future. These aspects or areas are both conventional and new. While the conventional areas include recruitment, training, placement, promotion, discipline, pay and pension, the new areas are need assessment to determine the size of the civil service, disposal of business and openness versus secrecy in government. The strengths and weaknesses of the existing management system are analysed and evaluated to drive home the point that there is a need to undertake serious feasibility studies aimed at introducing needed reforms in the present system before its wholesale dumping. For the existing system with some of its salutary aspects is a tested one and has endured a succession of changes for hundreds of years. Actually, it seems to this author that the institutional failure of the political machinery is at the root of the problems that have pervaded throughout the fabric of this country's civil service management. However, the author still suggests that some aspects of the present system need reform in light of the constitutional provisions on civil service management and accordingly draws the attention of policy makers to the necessity of action.
The author deserves to be congratulated for presenting such a highly informative book on the subject. It would be difficult to conceive of a study project addressing issues from such a wide range of perspectives other than this one. Yet the author has achieved his study objectives; and his analyses, observations and conclusions are in place convincingly. For someone wanting to gather insightful knowledge on the civil service and its management in Bangladesh, it is indeed a valuable study. Academics and practitioners of public administration in particular will find the book an enlightening one to reflect upon the facts and pitfalls and then to envision precisely the future system of civil service management in this country. It may also be useful as a text in training and public administration courses where an emphasis upon its structural-functional arrangements and legal framework is needed.
Dr Syed Giasuddin Ahmed is Supernumerary Professor of Public Administration, University of Dhaka.