A Rab for policymaking?
In my column, a month ago (see Daily Star, “A Vision Thing”) I suggested that Bangladesh's corporates and entrepreneurs were likely to be the key to Bangladesh catching up with the other Asian tigers in the region. But, a dynamic private sector and a substantial increase in FDI flow is likely to fail to deliver the kinds of economic growth gains Bangladesh needs to become a Middle Income Country unless the government and the regulatory authorities can provide a supportive enabling environment in terms of infrastructure, corporate governance, capital markets, law and order, education, fiscal policies and so on. But do the public believe that Bangladesh's senior civil servants are likely to deliver on such high expectations?
Without conducting a formal survey, anecdotal evidence does not suggest that many I have spoken to are optimistic. But an acceptance of inefficiencies of public policymaking is, in my view, grossly underestimating the critical role and contribution of senior civil servants in creating the enabling environment for Bangladesh to take the next leap forward.
This is an extremely complex topic and not one that an 800-word column can do justice to. But I would suggest any fresh attempts at public sector reform should focus on a number of key issues:
1) Education a clear strategy of constant new training in both best practices in different sectors of the economy, especially ones subject to rapid change such as the financial system. It is important senior civil servants have the right information to take effective decisions. I recollect a conversation with a former senior civil servant who was now a chairman of a private sector company who insightfully commented that when he was a secretary he often refused or delayed signing off on proposals he did not understand. But now he was on the other side of the table suffering from the same modus operandi of current secretaries, he realized how foolish he had been!
2) Accountability - It is important that public sector officials that either take the wrong decisions or, as is often the case, none at all for an unreasonably long period of time, be held accountable for their poor decisions.
3) Performance related pay While the word “accountability” may strike fear into the hearts of some civil servants, this at most reflects an asymmetric interpretation of the term. By contrast, I believe that particularly the most senior civil servants play a pivotal role in the economic future of the country and should be rewarded with performance bonuses as well as public recognition when they do their jobs effectively. Given the importance of efficient public sector decision making for companies, we should not begrudge better pay for key decision makers in the civil service.
4) This in turn necessitates a more systematic annual appraisal process. A key to getting the right feedback on when different ministries are doing a good or a bad job is to have a more effective public private interface. The Better Business Forum was one step in this direction but we need to have a platform for a wider range of key private sector economic players to highlight inefficiencies in public sector decision making. A stronger “Right to Information” Act would also pressure government officials to become more answerable for their decisions.
It is no coincidence that Singapore is believed to have the most effective public servants in the world but also has the highest paid PM, Lee Hsien Loong, whose salary is S$3.7 million, or US$2.53 million, more than six times that of US President George W. Bush. I am not arguing that our head of state should be paid at such an extreme level (in fact Singapore's President is paid even more at US$ 2.6mn). But I think taxpayers money should be targeted where it makes the largest difference which is, in my view, incentivising key public sector decision makers.
A final suggestion for civil service reform is to find a more effective means to avoid the inter-departmental delays, paper shuffling and indecision that has demotivated many entrepreneurs. All of you in the corporate sector have your own stories about going to one ministry for a decision, only to be sent to another and back again sometimes for months on end. I was thinking about this coming to the office the other morning and saw a group of RAB officers standing outside Square Hospital. They appear to have had a major impact in increasing public confidence in Law and Order. What we need is the equivalent of a Rapid Action Battalion for public decision making. A supra-ministry elite civil service commission that is empowered to prevent inter-departmental wrangling and jurisdictional turf battles from causing policy inertia. They would propose any necessary changes in the law to the government and any changes in the implementation of the law to the Regulatory Reforms Commission.
I am not sure we can expect them to wear dark glasses, black uniforms and bandanas. But a more effective public decision making process is critical to Bangladesh's economic future. So a RAB for policymaking may not be as far fetched as it seems.
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