Reforming the administration

The officers of the Civil Service of Pakistan were made development administrators. This was resented by other cadres; both sides developed their strong corporate identity and solidarity. During the rule of non-democratic regimes, public officials in general became prominent actors in enforcing undemocratic decisions, and developed an elitist character and a behaviour pattern which was sustained under subsequent elected regimes too.

During the military regimes, a new facade of bureaucracy with a mix of military and civil officers came into being. After liberation of Bangladesh, a huge lot of officers in the administrative and the police service were appointed without any examination and test of qualities. The criterion adopted in those appointments was participation in liberation war and political association. In mid-1980, appointment of 650 BCS (Adm) officers was made without any known criterion of test in order to place officers of administrative cadre on top of others in the upazila administration. These employees along with their prototypes of earlier days created jam of poor quality in the administration. In course of time they posed problem in the matter of promotion also.

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Colonial role of imperial Indian Civil Service officials and their deprecated image in many of the Civil Service of Pakistan officers started to work in the mind of the people as administrative ghosts. The over-bearing personal demeanour, elitist attitude of a lot of them in public duty and poor moral values contributed to the fairly deprecated portrait of many of these officials. For unpopular government measures and general failure of regimes these bureaucrats along with officer of other cadres were generally held responsible by politicians and civil societies. An apparent sense of self-deprecation prevailed among most of the honest, talented and academically brilliant of these bureaucrats particularly when politicos and others of inferior talent started to talk too loudly against bureaucrats as a whole.

The question raised now is: where do the civil services bureaucrats rank in public confidence among major institutions such as Parliament, Court, News Media, Educational Institutions, Political Parties etc. In Bangladesh, bureaucracy (educational financial, mercantile, industrial, commercial etc.) is also largely authoritative, highly status-conscious and position-proud, whereas modern concept of administrative dynamism and participation management has called for genteel leadership in top administration and management and low acceptance of authoritarian practices. The authoritarian stereotypes and organisational rigidities have rendered Bangladesh bureaucracy apparently irresponsive to the needs of the fast-changing society and placed it in a sort of unfriendly cleavage in the society.

Regarding the legitimacy of political control of bureaucracy there has been a long-standing controversy in Bangladesh. In this regard, our view is that where constant threat of political instability and adventurism exists, bureaucracy tends to resist political control with a view to retaining a character of professional continuity in the service of the state. It has been noticed in Bangladesh that high-ranking bureaucrats in all institutions are responsive to political demands and pressures and policy shifts, and have behaved like political partisans. The lower echelons have followed the suit. Disagreements with major political decisions have hardly been registered by symbolic resignation practice considered appropriate under bureaucratic tradition and professionalism. Resignation may not be a viable method if there are personal hazards in violence-charged societies and in societies where crimes may be committed with impunity.

In Bangladesh, bureaucracy has long-standing internal tensions, controversies, conflicts and combat attitudes. After the departure of the British, none could see any harmonious relationship and amity among the various cadres. Questions of administrative command, privilege, hierarchical status, warrant of precedence, promotion prospects, inter-cadre mobility, foreign training facility, residential accommodation and transport facility etc. are among fulminating issues. Commissions set up to revolve such issues were rendered infrustuous by the successful resistance of powerful cadres. A subdued mistrust and tension permeate the bureaucratic cadres.

The government of Pakistan and also of Bangladesh created a senior service pool opening lateral entry from all cadres. The pool created discontent in the administrative cadre which held vantage position in the administrative structure and also position of primacy over other cadres. The administrative cadre took hardline attitude against the pool and occasionally held out threats of resignation.

In retrospect, we may point out that in liberated Bangladesh, lots of civil and military officers were retired without assigning any cause. Subsequently, many retired officers of the defence services were absorbed in civil cadres, in government corporations etc. and others drifted towards business and industry. All these topsy-turvies created a lot of tension in the over-all sweep of public service spirit along with the blanket seniority of two years for war service.

There is no doubt that in Bangladesh, public service bureaucracy is in a state of inter-cadre conflict which will perhaps not admit of any solution unless the government takes a bold step to fix the cadres in terms of permanent career in the relevant Ministry leaving no scope open for lateral or vertical movement into any other Ministry. For the success of such a scheme, a special cadre should be maintained for miscellaneous posts in the administration. The existing system of recruitment may continue but training should be organised in terms of the functions of the Ministry concerned. Such a reform of specialist administration is most essential in the globalisation context also.

Administrative reform in wide scale cannot be effected in quick time. One basic reform relates to poor pay scale which gives general impression that the government employees live on bribery and illegal earning. Poor pay can hardly ensure motivation and energetic efforts, but leads to decline in quality of entrants in service. In this regard, attention of the administration needs to be focussed on the pay scale of private and international employments, purported to promote dedication and hard work. The government pay scale in Bangladesh civil services is not adjusted with the contemporary inflation. Periodically Pay Commission made some recommendations for a bit improved compensatory pay in cash and kind. Such recommendations have hardly been satisfactorily and timely enforced. As a result, the recommendations created discontent instead of satisfaction.

It may be considered if lump sum cash method of payment instead of "part-cash and part in-kind" system prevailing in Bangladesh can be introduced as in the case of many modern countries. Such a scheme makes it easy to adjust the total compensation for service with the prevailing inflation situation. Such a scheme will make comparison of different pay scales transparent and help justify the varying degree by which government salaries of different tiers will need to be adjusted to make salaries rational.

Abdul Khaleque is a former IG of Police.