How effective management system helps BHBFC reach new heights

Bangladesh is going through a rough patch economically due to the effect of the Ukraine crisis. The government of Bangladesh has taken several steps to alleviate the economic recession. In an incommodious situation like now, the government service needs to be better than ever. After 50 years of independence, there is no option but to ensure good governance at every level of the service provider office. For that, an effective performance management system had been introduced several years ago. The performance management system was developed in the form of an agreement named Annual Performance Agreement (APA). The government, specifically, the cabinet division had initiated the signing of performance contracts with all ministries. The ministries sign a similar agreement with their corresponding divisions and organisations as well as every field-level office in a hierarchy. The purpose of this annual performance agreement is to ensure institutional transparency, accountability, proper utilisation of resources and enhance institutional efficiency above all. It provides a summary of the most significant results that a government office must achieve in a financial year.
Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation (BHBFC), a state-owned financial institution, is very proud to have achieved the highest marks for four times in a row among nineteen institutions, including state-owned banks operating under the Financial Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance With a vision to provide finance to solve the housing problems of the lower-middle and middle-income group of people who are left out in the cold, BHBFC has perceived the performance agreement as a vehicle to optimize its business performance ensuring good governance, innovation and automation, transparency and service quality.
Established in 1953 and reformed in 1973 by the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, BHBFC has performed an important role in the housing finance sector of Bangladesh. Though many banks and non-bank financial institutions are investing in the home loan sector, BHBFC is the only state-owned organisation specialised in this sector with the lowest interest rate and grassroots area coverage at Upazila level. In the last financial year, the corporation has disbursed the highest amount of loan since its inception. The amount is not big compared to other financial institutions but we managed to decrease the classified loan at a rate of 3.80%. This was our headpiece for the last financial year and the significance of this reduction in classified loan rate cannot be described in short. We are trying to improve ourselves every year not only by operational performance but also the service and human resources. One of the main reasons for this progress is taking up every segment, every performance indicator included in APA in our every organisational activity in line with the government's development plans, including the 8th five-year plan, Perspective Plan-2041, Election Manifesto-2018, Delta Plan-2100, National Adaptation Plan etc. and contribute to the implementation of the promise made by the Prime Minister- on "Housing for All" and "No one will be homeless in this country". Implementing the strategic objectives related to good governance and reformation helped us to improve our service quality and service delivery as well as financial management. We have adopted the APA framework and constructed our work plan which concentrates on information management in sync with the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Smart Bangladesh that would help elevation of BHBFC as a progressive and transparent institution. Implementation of the National Integrity Strategy (NIS) enhanced institutional and personal integrity practices and prevented corruption. We have constructed an apprehensible citizen charter and placed it visibly in every field office which is bringing a progressive response from the stakeholders and service-expectants.
Proper implementation of the D-file system and innovation, Grievance Redress System (GRS), training and workshops, upgradation of the website and all other performance indicators have increased the responsibility and efficiency of our officials. This agreement process is very important to us because it has shifted organisational focus to result-oriented activities from process-oriented activities. Implementing APA in financial organizations is very important as these nineteen organisations are representatives of the public financial service to all citizens. In particular, the state-owned banks serve a huge number of clients and they have a big opportunity to improve their service by implementing APA. The exclusive part of our APA strategies is that we mandate some indicators for the implementation of affordable housing, environment-friendly housing and specially, women empowerment by setting annual targets for all field-level offices. We also included an indicator like publishing a research paper on the housing finance sector by our dedicated research unit. We emphasize on going green step-by-step and APA is a good platform to measure our achievement and organisational development.
Last but not least, one can consider Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation (BHBFC) as a good example of how a financial organisation can develop itself by adopting a performance management system. We are looking forward to holding our top position in our category as well as among all the state-owned financial institutions for next year and on. We overcame the challenges of securing the first position four times consecutively among these competent financial institutions, which are one of the most important pillars of the country's economy, with total help of our management, skilled APA team and all our stakeholders from every level of offices. We are expressing our gratitude to our controlling authority Financial Institutions Division (FID) of the Ministry of Finance for their support and sincere monitoring.
With the sturdy leadership of our Hon'ble Prime Minister, Bangladesh has been acknowledged globally as a role model of development. After the successful celebration of the Mujibborsho and the golden jubilee of independence, every citizen especially the responsible government officials need to work sincerely to uplift ourselves into a developed country by proper implementation of the development plans. To meet this goal of establishing 'Sonar Bangla', implementing and adopting the APA by every government service holder is a must as it is more than an agreement to boost public service.

The author is Deputy Managing Director and APA Team Leader of BHBFC. He can be reached at [email protected]