Civil service losing its sheen and lustre
Friday, 22 October 2010
Maswood Alam Khan
For the last few decades, civil service in Bangladesh has been deemed the preferred career choice for youths thanks to the discernible pay and concealed perks, social status and almost one hundred per cent job security in the civil service. But in the recent years, with new avenues opening up in the western countries for both studies and jobs and with lucrative jobs available in the local private enterprises, especially in information technology (IT) and telecom industries, the first grade talents have gradually shied away from jobs in the public sector leaving the vacancies in the government for lower grade talents to fill up.
Reports of shearing the bureaucrats of some of their judicial powers, politicizing bureaucracy for meeting partisan interests, redefining the role and functions of field officers like Upazilla Nirbahi Officers (UNOs) with diminished power making them subservient to local representatives and placing the civil bureaucrats in the warrant of precedence at par or below their counterparts who are dressed in police or military uniforms may now scare even the second grade talents away from the civil service.
And assaults on civil bureaucrats, like the recent battering on the district administration officials in Pabna, if allowed to go unabated, many observers are afraid, may be viewed in retrospect by the historians in the future as the last nails that were hammered on the coffin of public administration in Bangladesh leaving public offices to be staffed by third grade mediocrities.
The public administration in Bangladesh seems to be ominously poised to slide into such a worse situation that youths of very low caliber may have to be appointed in civil services perhaps solely on political considerations and the civil bureaucrats may be made to remain committed more to serving the political party in power than to delivering service for the public welfare.
Civil services in Bangladesh are fast losing their sheens and lustrous qualities. The rich tradition of civil service of being non-partisan seems to have been dead and buried and the institutional image of bureaucracy shattered mainly due to undue political interventions in the affairs of public administration. The neutrality of Public Service Commission in recruiting civil servants has also been questioned with the allegations of corruption and nepotism against some erstwhile members of the commission. Hence, civil service is no more the first priority for the vast majority of young men and women who are eager to lead an honest but prestigious career.
The contribution of civil servants in terms of intellectual input for national development has declined substantially while the contribution of private entrepreneurs and nongovernment organizations in terms of real input for economic growth has risen dramatically.
The decline of civil servants' contribution towards national development should not be blamed on the shoulders of politicians alone. The very colonial tradition and the unimpeded structure of civil service in Bangladesh are also responsible for such a decline.
The civil servants are supposed to deliver 'public goods', in the language of economists. Among the public goods are law and order, delivery of justice, education, medical care, making and maintaining roads and highways etc.
But there is a general public perception that had the responsibility of delivering public goods been withdrawn from the government and vested in private enterprises there would have been a win-win situation for both the government and the citizens. Civil servants, as the saying goes, are neither civil nor servants and it is widely believed that they neglect their duties, ignore the people's needs, are self-serving, rude, and in most cases corrupt.
The problem with the civil service is in its very structure. We need more teachers, but we have more assistants. We need more research workers, but we have more peons. We need more nurses, but we have more typists. More than ninety per cent of government employees are what are called Class III and Class IV government servants. They are ''support'' staff. They fetch and carry for the Class I and Class II officers. Except for pelf and prestige to the bosses, these clerks and peons do not practically add any value to the work of bureaucracy.
Now is the time to revise the structure of the civil bureaucracy, abolish some categories of jobs, redefine each job, retrain existing personnel and ensure that each public servant contributes value to the work of government. What is more important is a need to restructure the government and its machinery in consonance not with the doctrine of traditional bureaucracy but with the modern science of administration. Our politicians should also realize that intervening with the bureaucracy will boomerang on them and leave our future generations with a legacy of inefficient and corrupt governance.
If the bureaucracy cannot be ridden of its structural burdens and has to dance in accordance with the whims of the party in power it is better that the civil service in Bangladesh is abolished altogether and the responsibility of delivering public goods is vested on private enterprises.
E-mail : maswood@hotmail.com
For the last few decades, civil service in Bangladesh has been deemed the preferred career choice for youths thanks to the discernible pay and concealed perks, social status and almost one hundred per cent job security in the civil service. But in the recent years, with new avenues opening up in the western countries for both studies and jobs and with lucrative jobs available in the local private enterprises, especially in information technology (IT) and telecom industries, the first grade talents have gradually shied away from jobs in the public sector leaving the vacancies in the government for lower grade talents to fill up.
Reports of shearing the bureaucrats of some of their judicial powers, politicizing bureaucracy for meeting partisan interests, redefining the role and functions of field officers like Upazilla Nirbahi Officers (UNOs) with diminished power making them subservient to local representatives and placing the civil bureaucrats in the warrant of precedence at par or below their counterparts who are dressed in police or military uniforms may now scare even the second grade talents away from the civil service.
And assaults on civil bureaucrats, like the recent battering on the district administration officials in Pabna, if allowed to go unabated, many observers are afraid, may be viewed in retrospect by the historians in the future as the last nails that were hammered on the coffin of public administration in Bangladesh leaving public offices to be staffed by third grade mediocrities.
The public administration in Bangladesh seems to be ominously poised to slide into such a worse situation that youths of very low caliber may have to be appointed in civil services perhaps solely on political considerations and the civil bureaucrats may be made to remain committed more to serving the political party in power than to delivering service for the public welfare.
Civil services in Bangladesh are fast losing their sheens and lustrous qualities. The rich tradition of civil service of being non-partisan seems to have been dead and buried and the institutional image of bureaucracy shattered mainly due to undue political interventions in the affairs of public administration. The neutrality of Public Service Commission in recruiting civil servants has also been questioned with the allegations of corruption and nepotism against some erstwhile members of the commission. Hence, civil service is no more the first priority for the vast majority of young men and women who are eager to lead an honest but prestigious career.
The contribution of civil servants in terms of intellectual input for national development has declined substantially while the contribution of private entrepreneurs and nongovernment organizations in terms of real input for economic growth has risen dramatically.
The decline of civil servants' contribution towards national development should not be blamed on the shoulders of politicians alone. The very colonial tradition and the unimpeded structure of civil service in Bangladesh are also responsible for such a decline.
The civil servants are supposed to deliver 'public goods', in the language of economists. Among the public goods are law and order, delivery of justice, education, medical care, making and maintaining roads and highways etc.
But there is a general public perception that had the responsibility of delivering public goods been withdrawn from the government and vested in private enterprises there would have been a win-win situation for both the government and the citizens. Civil servants, as the saying goes, are neither civil nor servants and it is widely believed that they neglect their duties, ignore the people's needs, are self-serving, rude, and in most cases corrupt.
The problem with the civil service is in its very structure. We need more teachers, but we have more assistants. We need more research workers, but we have more peons. We need more nurses, but we have more typists. More than ninety per cent of government employees are what are called Class III and Class IV government servants. They are ''support'' staff. They fetch and carry for the Class I and Class II officers. Except for pelf and prestige to the bosses, these clerks and peons do not practically add any value to the work of bureaucracy.
Now is the time to revise the structure of the civil bureaucracy, abolish some categories of jobs, redefine each job, retrain existing personnel and ensure that each public servant contributes value to the work of government. What is more important is a need to restructure the government and its machinery in consonance not with the doctrine of traditional bureaucracy but with the modern science of administration. Our politicians should also realize that intervening with the bureaucracy will boomerang on them and leave our future generations with a legacy of inefficient and corrupt governance.
If the bureaucracy cannot be ridden of its structural burdens and has to dance in accordance with the whims of the party in power it is better that the civil service in Bangladesh is abolished altogether and the responsibility of delivering public goods is vested on private enterprises.
E-mail : maswood@hotmail.com