Editorial
Administrative reforms process still a non-starter
It does not have to be a lost opportunity, though
At a time when reform is a crucial aspect of governance in Bangladesh, especially under the present caretaker government, the matter of reforming the bureaucracy appears to have fallen flat. The much-vaunted idea of having the civil administration transformed into a more efficient and dynamic machinery has curiously run into a blind alley. In other words, all too familiar lethargy has now come over the entire reforms issue, with the result that between now and the arrival of a new elected government not much can be expected to happen in this field.
There are, obviously, all the reasons why no major overhauling of the bureaucratic system can be expected at this stage. The irony is palpable here. Bureaucratic slowness, perhaps even sloth, has come into the whole business. When in December last year the establishment ministry came up with a draft civil service ordinance relating to promotions, transfers and career planning of civil servants, a good deal of enthusiasm was generated not only in the administration but outside it as well. After what had been perceived, and correctly at that, as a long process of the politicisation of the civil service under various governments, the move was seen as a sincere effort to restore the image of a bureaucracy as a body in the service of the republic. It was expected that the administrative reforms committee, set up in July last year, would move vigorously into taking the proposals contained in the draft toward speedy implementation. That has not happened. The surprising part in the story is that the committee has held just one meeting. For a body that should have been a whole lot more involved in its work, such indifference to the issue appears to have been gross carelessness.
And the result is only too obvious. What was certainly an opportunity for the civil administration to be delinked from politics has now been missed. That is unfortunate, for it keeps alive the old fear that the bureaucracy may go on being an instrument in the hands of unscrupulous politicians only too ready to further their own ends. Our suggestion is that even in the brief time span that remains before the elections, the task of reforming the administration can yet be undertaken with a renewed sense of purpose. Why not begin again in earnest?
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