Move to make BBS an independent entity
Tuesday, 11 September 2007
Shakhawat Hossain
The caretaker government (CG) has taken a move to make the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) independent, aiming to raise its credibility at home and abroad, BBS officials said.
"Promulgation of an act is in the process by the caretaker administration to make the BBS an independent entity," BBS director general AYM Ekramul Houque told the FE Sunday.
The act, according to the DG, will allow the BBS to function like any other autonomous body and permit it to hire private experts to infuse dynamism in its activities.
The BBS needs to be independent to carry forward its activities and to match the standard of any such international organisation, he said.
"Most of the statistical organisations in Asia Pacific region enjoy hundred per cent autonomy," he added.
To a query, the BBS DG said in the next couple of months, there will be some developments towards establishing credibility of the organisation.
Donor agencies, including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), has long been criticising the activities and standard of the BBS. They have urged the government to strengthen the organisation.
The immediate past political government formed an advisory committee, led by noted economist Wahiuddin Mahmud, to bring improvement in national account statistics and aggregates.
The central bank governor was also included in the seven-member committee that has already held two meetings and is expected to sit again in the current month.
The main task of the committee is to create mechanism for releasing statistics on the gross domestic product (GDP) quarterly, which the BBS is now publishing annually.
Besides, a project to carry out survey on private education, private health service and non-profit institution is being implemented by the BBS.
The ADB is funding the project, which is now almost half-way through.
The BBS is hiring a foreign expert to complete the surveys.
According to the BBS official website, at independence in December 1971, Bangladesh owned a weak and disintegrated official statistical system.
In August 1974, the BBS was created by the government by merging four relatively larger statistical agencies of the provincial and central governments, namely, the Bureau of Statistics, the Bureau of Agriculture Statistics, the Agriculture Census Commission and the Population Census Commission.
About a year later in July 1975, the Statistics Division was created and placed under the Ministry of Planning. In 2002, the Statistics Division was put under the Planning Commission,
With its head office in Dhaka, BBS has 23 regional and 489 Upazila/Thana level offices located in the 23 greater districts.
The caretaker government (CG) has taken a move to make the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) independent, aiming to raise its credibility at home and abroad, BBS officials said.
"Promulgation of an act is in the process by the caretaker administration to make the BBS an independent entity," BBS director general AYM Ekramul Houque told the FE Sunday.
The act, according to the DG, will allow the BBS to function like any other autonomous body and permit it to hire private experts to infuse dynamism in its activities.
The BBS needs to be independent to carry forward its activities and to match the standard of any such international organisation, he said.
"Most of the statistical organisations in Asia Pacific region enjoy hundred per cent autonomy," he added.
To a query, the BBS DG said in the next couple of months, there will be some developments towards establishing credibility of the organisation.
Donor agencies, including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), has long been criticising the activities and standard of the BBS. They have urged the government to strengthen the organisation.
The immediate past political government formed an advisory committee, led by noted economist Wahiuddin Mahmud, to bring improvement in national account statistics and aggregates.
The central bank governor was also included in the seven-member committee that has already held two meetings and is expected to sit again in the current month.
The main task of the committee is to create mechanism for releasing statistics on the gross domestic product (GDP) quarterly, which the BBS is now publishing annually.
Besides, a project to carry out survey on private education, private health service and non-profit institution is being implemented by the BBS.
The ADB is funding the project, which is now almost half-way through.
The BBS is hiring a foreign expert to complete the surveys.
According to the BBS official website, at independence in December 1971, Bangladesh owned a weak and disintegrated official statistical system.
In August 1974, the BBS was created by the government by merging four relatively larger statistical agencies of the provincial and central governments, namely, the Bureau of Statistics, the Bureau of Agriculture Statistics, the Agriculture Census Commission and the Population Census Commission.
About a year later in July 1975, the Statistics Division was created and placed under the Ministry of Planning. In 2002, the Statistics Division was put under the Planning Commission,
With its head office in Dhaka, BBS has 23 regional and 489 Upazila/Thana level offices located in the 23 greater districts.