Editorial
Revving up the administration
Factors that compromise efficiency should be removed
The Prime Minister has dreams and vision for a prosperous Bangladesh. She is also under pressure of a massive popular mandate to deliver goods to people in terms of stable law and order, good governance and catering to basic needs of the majority who are poor. Little wonder, therefore, that rather early in the day, a couple of weeks ago, she had addressed a letter to the secretaries exhorting them to quicken their pace of work in implementing the directives of the government, so that people can receive the intended services sooner rather than later.
Her impatience is understandable, even endearing, and good intentions obvious, but it seems to us though, in a manner of speaking, what her right hand seeks to do appears to be unwittingly negated by the left hand. The massive and frequent changes in the administration through a series of postings and transfers have sent tremors through the administration unsettling many a ministry. Senior officials being in a state of restiveness and uncertainty as to when the wholesale process of change will end can hardly concentrate and be focused on the job at hand. This is hardly an ideal situation for a new government to initiate the promised qualitative change in the life of the nation.
Of course, there is no mistaking the need for a degree of reorganising the administration with the change of government, especially in our context where a preceding ruling party had seated its loyalists on top positions. This notion, however, discounts the fact that there are officials in the Republic who have track records of probity, integrity, honesty and efficiency that they must be credited for and duly placed by all governments. Then, there is a rather large array of officers who consciously separate any privately-held political belief which they would only apply during elections from what they deem to be their legitimate official functions. In the third category perhaps would fall the adjustable lot in the innocuous sense of the term; and in the fourth the chameleon that any well-meaning government must be wary of.
Given such varied texture of the officialdom, the most rational and effective approach to reorganisation at the advent of a new government should perforce be a gradualist one based on careful observation and periodic review of the output of officials rather than a sweeping and wholesale one that can not only unsettle or demoralise the administration but also disorient them from cooperating with the political government. A stop must be put to frequent changes in senior positions at the very least.
Just as in the case of transfer, there is an issue about marginalising officials as OSD. We thought that the present government would not resort to it but they seem to be repeating it which should be rolled back in order to utilise the idle capacity of the OSD.
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