Bangladesh - Belgium

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Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study Zia Rahman emerged as a leader from a power struggle among the military and a series of coup attempts following the assassination. He established the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) Zia was assassinated in 1981. A review of the brief history (Box C1) reveals a pattern of reprisals and standoffs between the three major parties (BNP, AL and JP). The BNP is led by the widow of assassinated Zia Rahman and the AL is led by the daughter of assassinated Sheikh Muhibur Rahman. There is thus enormous animosity between the two which has precluded co-operation, even when trying to oust the military rule of Ershad in the eighties. Elections pre 1991 were all regarded as cosmetic exercises to legitimise the ruling party. Consecutive elections continued to be (even the three post 1991) regarded by losers as unfair and public protests (sometimes violent), hartals and boycotts of Parliament and elections have been the main instruments to destabilise the incumbent governments (e.g. 173 days of hartals were called during the BNP term of office and BNP retaliated with 85 days of strikes during the AL term (Datta, 2003)). The boycotts of Parliament have meant that there has rarely been a responsible opposition and stable conditions for operation of parliamentary democracy. Parliament is treated as a forum for the ruling alliance and the Constitution amended to meet their needs thus undermining political legitimacy. In 2006, Bangladesh plunged into political crisis when the coalition government led by the BNP and AL led 14 party opposition could not reach agreement about the management of elections due in December (this is discussed further below in section C.4). Institutional framework and distribution of powers The People’s Republic of Bangladesh was declared a parliamentary democracy in 1972 following the War of Independence. A Constitution based on the AL’s four principles; nationalism, secularism, socialism and democracy was instituted. It made provision for a largely ceremonial President, a Prime Minister and unicameral (single house) legislature (Parliament) and an independent judiciary. It has undergone 14 amendments since then, many of them of a major nature. The current Constitution bears the most similarity to the original intentions of the first Constitution. Thus, the Executive should comprise a President (Chief of State), Prime Minister (Head of Government) and Cabinet with a 345 member parliament. The most recent Constitutional amendment (2004) secured 45 reserved seats in Parliament for women (increasing the Parliament number form 300 to 345). These seats are distributed among political parties in proportion to the numerical strength in Parliament (although the AL did not take up these in the last Government arguing against the indirect election /nomination of women in favour of direct election). The President is elected by Parliament every five years and appoints the Prime Minister supported by the majority of Members of Parliament (MPs). Most MPs are elected by simple majority in single member districts through universal suffrage at least every five years (the exception to this is the nominated women members). All adults over 18 are eligible to vote. The political administrative units comprise six Divisions (regions), sixty four Districts and 4,451 Unions and approximately 80,000 villages (grams). There is an administrative tier between District and Union (at various times referred to as Upazila or Thana and numbering about 460) but although intended to be an electoral unit in the Constitution, elections have yet to be held at this level. The Divisions are placed under a Divisional Commissioner who plays a supervisory role over all the Government agencies and departments at this level. However, the District is the focal point for the administration headed by the Deputy Commissioners. Annual development plans are made at this level, which include all the proposed construction of infrastructure for the District. Municipalities (five have been elevated to City Corporations) and Pourashavas replace thana and unions as the administrative units. Elected mayors run the City Corporations. 64
Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study Legislation is dominated by the Executive by initiating laws, limiting debate on laws and not passing Bills to Select or Standing Committees. Prime Ministers Question time was introduced in 1997 but has never been fully exploited and is undermined by the Prime Minister’s authority to select questions. It has in effect been turned into a propaganda tool. Despite provision for a separate judiciary from the Executive in the Constitution, this has yet to be operationalised, although recent moves (notably in November 2007) under the current Caretaker Government have set this process well on its way. The Judiciary has thus functioned as an extension of the Executive. The independence of the High court and Supreme Court is inadequate. Public Oversight Mechanisms Despite provisions in the Constitution the establishment of effective public oversight mechanisms has been weak. The BNP supported the Ombudsman Act (1980) but then no serious efforts were made to actually establish the Office. The position of Ombudsman has thus been symbolic only and has never functioned as an impartial focus for investigating citizens’ complaints against public institutions. The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General has been largely ineffective. Political pressure has circumscribed its role and it was unable to provide independent information. The Public Expenditure Review Commission has identified hundreds of irregularities in public expenditure and wastage of funds as well as criticised parliamentary standing committees for their inability to ensure accountability. Parliamentary oversight committees have not been particularly effective although some progress was made between1996-2001. The patron–client nature of politics and inclusion of Ministers in these committees has severely undermined their ability to demand accountability (Ahmed,2001). The Anti Corruption Commission was set up in 2004 under pressure from the international community. Initially it suffered from accusations that appointments to the Commission were made on partisan grounds. Only since the current Caretaker Government has this body been given the support required to function independently. A Tax Ombudsman was established in 2004 to deal with tax related mal-practice but an actual appointment was only made in 2006. Governance indicators The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project of the World Bank indicates that Bangladesh does not fare well in all of the six indicators examined. The Indicators combine the views of a large number of enterprise, citizen and expert survey respondents in industrial and developing countries. The individual data sources underlying the aggregate indicators are drawn from a diverse variety of survey institutes, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations. Table C.1. Worldwide Governance Indicators Indicator 2006 percentile rank Cf 2006 percentile rank India Cf 2006 percentile rank Pakistan Comment (by authors) Voice and accountability 30.8 58.2 12.5 Better score than other indicators but decreasing over the period 1996-2006 65
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IV Relevant Primary and Secondary d
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II: Overall Assessment of Intervent
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Impact According to the 2007 Impact
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Model of change Assumptions Activit
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D.8. Bangladesh Sanjukta Sramic Fed
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Effectiveness BSSF provides 22 trai
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. Model of change Assumptions Activ
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D.9. Rupantar Grassroots Women’s
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Impact Phase 1 resulted in a cadre
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Figure 1. Rupantar CVA Model of Cha
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Table 2. Most significant change an
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D.10. Samata - Empowerment Through
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Lessons Learned Important lessons l
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Table 2. Most significant change an
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D.11. GTZ brokered dialogue within
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Sustainability GTZ feels that the f
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Project (Donor) Partners/ PIUs Inte
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Project (Donor) Partners/ PIUs Inte
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Annex F. Summary of Stakeholder Deb
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