The deadweight of an oversized cabinet

This newspaper had opposed the formation of a 60-member cabinet on the assumption of power by BNP and its allies nearly four years ago. Since then there have been two successive cabinet reshuffles, basically redistribution of portfolios, that too quite a while ago, whereby nine ministers were jettisoned. But five new advisors were inducted entrusting them with the responsibility of some ministries which was mildly speaking unconventional.

Still, the existing government is hugely oversized, a fact that is only underscored by the lazing out of so many ministers. The lighter side of it is the ministers without any job are in the news for gossips and political bickering they have all the time for. But that ironically in a country where so much needs to be done with so little resource to waste on sinecure really.

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There are other inherent flaws in the structure of the government. First, as many as 18 state and deputy ministers have no specified responsibilities. Secondly, the ministries in which a minister and a state or deputy minister work simultaneously, there is something of a duality of authority and a sizeable degree of working at cross-purposes. The resulting confusion percolates lower down the order bringing the overall level of efficiency of the government down to an abyss.

True, a political government couldn't set aside certain factors like regional pulls and pressures or the need for giving berths to coalition partners, but nothing can justify having a cabinet with so many ministers on the sidelines of the dynamics of governance, howsoever wobbly they have been. Basically, no amount of sound thinking went into the making of the cabinet; even the expertise and background of the ministerial candidates were not taken into account while portfolios were distributed among them.

It has now been proven beyond any shadow of doubt that an unusually bloated cabinet is responsible for the poor governance in the country. It may not be too late even now to reduce the size of government and save the national exchequer some money while ensuring a degree of efficiency in running the affairs of the country.