Bangladesh - Independent Evaluation Group - World Bank

2.8 At independence, the civil service had reasonable capacity, including a core of
capable professionals able to implement national priorities, such as disaster relief and
mitigation, and, unusually for the region, land reform. Over the past 15 years, this core has
diminished in strength, leading to capacity decline as a result of increasing political
interference and uncompetitive compensation. Also, the government has been resistant to
working with development partners for civil service reform (Wescott, Siddique and Rahman,
2007).
2.9 The government now has 41 ministries and divisions and a large number of
directorates, departments, autonomous bodies, boards, commissions, and the like. An
extensive, central public administration system reaches down to the subdistrict (Upazila)
level. Total public sector employment is around 1.2 million, of which about 70 percent are
employed in the civil service, 20 percent in state-owned enterprises, and 10 percent in the
armed forces. Although expenditure on the civil service is not excessive by international
standards (average 2.5 percent of GDP, FY07-FY10), its effectiveness is held back by overemployment
at lower levels of staff, many of whom are not hired on merit, and outdated
management practices, including lack of authority to carry out assigned tasks properly.
Although basic pay is low, there are extensive fringe benefits, particularly for higher-level
staff. Survey data (World Bank 2000) indicate that only 8 percent of civil servants are
actively looking for a job in the private sector.
2.10 The Public Service Commission is the central recruiting body for civil servants, and
the Establishment Division sets civil service regulations. Most of the laws, rules, and
regulations pertaining to the civil service are old and need to be amended and updated. The
army acts with more restraint and with a more modest claim on budgetary resources than in
neighboring countries, held in check by the prospect of lucrative, overseas postings on
United Nations peacekeeping missions.
2.11 Public administration challenges include monopolization of the government, political
parties, and means of production by a small, tightly knit elite; a weak human resource
management system and a limited management information system, including lack of career
planning, irregularities in performance measurement, irregularities in promotions, poor
training, excessive transfers, lack of effective implementation of and contradictions in
administrative rules and regulations, and widespread corruption. In addition, there has been a
decline in routine oversight and inspection functions because of weak supervision, distraction
from protocol duties, and a lack of resources to undertake inspection visits (Schiavo-Campo,
Tommaso, and Mukherjee 1997; World Bank 2000: Chapter 6; People’s Participation
Research Centre 2007; World Bank 2010; IMF 2010).
2.12 Although successive governments routinely call for reform (see, for example,
Bangladesh Government 2002), progress is hindered by various constraints. First, some
ministries pursued reforms led by technocrats and without political consensus, and progress
was therefore slow. Second, in these and other ministries, many civil servants focused on
collecting rents to cover the debts they had incurred in securing their positions, their
campaign expenses, and their personal needs. Senior posts can sell for $10,000 and
ministerial posts for $1 million. Any reforms that would hinder such rent-seeking were
opposed (Wescott Siddique and Rahman 2007).
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