Functioning of democracy

In reviewing the functioning of democracy in Bangladesh, we may sadly observe that the parliament is not the hub of all political activities. It has badly suffered from boycott, walk-out at the slightest pretext as a routine affair of major parties. The quality of parliamentary discussions and political debates lacks homework; discussions and debates usually centre round political personalities and not issues. The constitutional provision (Article 70) that forces and MP to toe the party line has made democracy fairly unreal in the parliament and outside. The MP cannot exercise his personal conscience and interest. The parliament is to an extent occupied by ex-bureaucrats and ex-military officers and business tycoons, and not be professional politicians, high calibre intellectuals, eminent educationists, doctors, engineers, lawyers and such other personages who do not have money enough to enter the vote-market. Nobody cares for the ceiling of election expenditure set by the Election Commission. Clandestine expenditure to influence voters is alleged in elections.

Bangladesh has a long list of laws and procedures enacted or imposed by native and foreign rulers and military regimes. The appropriateness of such laws and procedures along with the laws known as black laws enacted in independent Bangladesh is a big question mark now in the context of human rights and constitutional liberty. By and large, there is pronounced disregard for law in the country. Improper and inadequate law enforcement and absence of its professional sense and sanity are household themes.

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For thoughtful and insightful law-making, it is sometimes suggested that Bangladesh should have a bi-cameral legislature in which outstanding lawyer and religious, ethnic professional, vocational, peasant, doctor, engineer, scientific and technological groups etc. would find representation in order to improve the process of law-making in the light of their experience, knowledge and prudence. There has been struggle of women organisations for adequate reserved representation in the elective process of the parliament, in all self-governing institutions and everywhere else in the government of the country including the judicial and the defence services and various commissions.

Enormous amount of details are to be worked out for a concrete blueprint of administrative reform. We have just barely presented the salient problems of such reform. To start with, we must mention that neutrality is the essence of public service and that a one hundred percent honesty is the minimum qualification for a public servant who is required only to serve and not to rule. The word "Administrator" begets arrogance and it must be dropped from democratic vocabulary. Arrogance of power is usually cited as the hall-mark of Bangladesh public officials (bureaucrats). Political control over bureaucracy is conspicuously absent. In our opinion, civil services must not have a "defence flavour" in any tier.

Inter-relationship among 29 cadre services is now bitter to the extreme. The over-bearing attitude of some cadres over others has jeopardised the efficiency of public services as a whole. In Bangladesh, magistrate of the colonial days is still engaged in lower criminal justice system and members of the "Administrative Service" occupy posts of each and every ministry as a matter of right. In order to put an end to such a situation it seems feasible that the 29 cadres should be fixed as far as possible in terms of their ministries concerned for a full career, with a general cadre left to man miscellaneous non-cadre jobs. Recruitment, training, promotion prospect etc. should be made on the basis of the needs of the ministry concerned, so that no cadre can enter another laterally or vertically.

There should be code of civil service conduct approved by the parliament for each and every cadre. The disciplinary rules and the punishment procedures and practices now prevailing should be thoroughly examined by a competent political committee for parliamentary approval in order to ensure quick and rational punishment for any delinquency which should include, among other things, misdemeanor also. In our bureaucracy, industry, mills and factories and educational institutions there is no work culture worth the name at any level. Lack of punctuality and responsiveness to public need have been a standing calumny in public services of the Republic.

To deal with corruption of various grades of public and private services, corporations and of autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies including speed- money, hundi and share in miscellaneous contracts, distributions and purchases there is need for a permanent "Constitutional Anti-Corruption Commission".

The appointment of "Ombudsman" with necessary authority to deal with "certain types of complaints" with independence against Members of Parliament, Ministers and statutory bodies and top bureaucrats (civil and non-civil) will be another step to alleviate delinquency and also corruption. The report of the Ombudsman will go to every session of the Parliament for direction for further action. The Ombudsman will generally monitor the functioning and performance of government offices, courts, autonomous and semi-government institutions.

For economic and social uplift Bangladesh needs thorough administrative reform. According to management experts, government-owned enterprises are overstaffed, that is, too many persons are employed for the amount of work that is actually done. Any attempt at reduction of the staff as a reform measure becomes extremely risky proposition in view of political and trade union opposition and the civil servents' protest which may paralyse the administration.

The concept of national capability to deal with such risk is critically important. The concept of golden handshake is helpful in the nation's overall interest. One important component of national capability is the efficiency and steadfastness with which the national government can defend the national interest in face of domestic, private and international pressures.

With the increase in the role of the private sector, the NGO's and the international sector in economic development, the importance of administrative reform has increased. One of the major problems faced by Bangladesh economy now is the burden of bad loans of the government-owned financial institutions given to private sectors without proper assessment of their recovery prospects. In spite of good works done by the NGO's, it has been felt the NGO's need national supervision so that their works may serve cohesive national interest. The essential supervision in respect of NGO project calls for permanent and capable civil service authority in the administration. With respect to the negotiations of the government with various foreign and multinational authorities in matters of contracts it is necessary that the permanent civil servants undertake responsibility on behalf of the government to protect national interest and resist pressure or lure of private gains.

In fact, Bangladesh needs an efficient civil administration capable of guarding her national interest in the aid dependence of her economy. It is the responsibility of the civil service together with the political leadership to ensure that the foreign aid actually serves national interest. In project selection, designing and execution, the role of the permanent technocrat service can hardly be over-emphasised. Bangladesh by all means needs a civil and technological and technocrat administration of high quality and integrity to mobilize and utilise domestic resources and undertake project for effective completion.

For high quality public service, the compensation for service should be comparable with private sector and international compensations as a reasonable step. We are in favour of lump salary in place of prevailing "part-cash" and "part in-kind" salary for adjustment of compensation with inflation.

The central question of any service is the compensation (salary) that is paid for that service. In Bangladesh, co-existence of three pay scales prevails. One such pay scale mainly relates to top positions in foreign companies, donor agencies, international organisations, foreign NGO's etc. It is not possible to ensure an equilibrium of the top civil servants' compensation with such international compensations. The private sector generally pays less than the international scale but more than the government service scale. This disequilibrium is the actual financial strain in government service. Can Bangladesh come out of such a disequilibrium of pay scale in order to stop brain-drain and thereby to increase the nation's capability to safeguard its national interest? We think, Bangladesh cannot.

Bangladesh civil service pay scale is not strictly related to any standard which can satisfy an employee. With a basic pay and its gradual increments are added house-rent, dearness allowance, medical benefit, gratuity, pension etc. Some of these are determined by percentage of the basic pay, others are related to different bases. In kind also compensation is paid. For example, government housing, transportation facilities, allotment of government plots for house building etc. It is an economic principle followed in many countries that lump sum cash payment of the total market value of compensation is always welfare-enhancing for the recipient, compared to part of it in kind. This means that lump sum cash payment enhances welfare without requiring any budgetary increase in expenditure. This may sometimes lead to budgetary savings also.

Abdul Khaleque is a former IG of Police.