Bangladesh - Independent Evaluation Group - World Bank

Implementation Status and Results reports highlight that there has been modest achievement
in governance and institutional reforms and continued effort toward achievement (World
Bank 2010c: 61). Improving the quality of education reforms is the main focus of the
governance in the primary education agenda, but most of the governance issues addressed are
outside of the purview of school quality. As a result, many of the proposed governance
reforms in PDEP II have yet to be fully addressed, though there have been improvements in
some areas, such as transparency in teacher placement. Education remains highly centralized
despite existing management committees at the school level and government oversight at the
district (Upazila) level.
4.15 During the 2006-09 CAS period the Bank’s investments in reforming teacher
selection were successful. Teachers are now selected through a merit-based process.
Improvements in teacher registration and recruitment have resulted in more transparent
allocation of teachers to schools (World Bank 2010b). This has reduced opportunities for
corruption in teacher deployment, but it has not resulted in observed improvement in teacher
quality. The proposed PDEP III takes further steps toward improving teacher quality using
more of a results-based financing model. It includes development-lending indicators for
teacher performance. Funding for schools will not be disbursed unless schools can
demonstrate improvements in teacher performance.
4.16 The PDEP II has made some progress in linking subsidies to schools based on
learning outcomes of children through stipend programs. It has been somewhat successful.
However, findings suggest that school attendance and examination pass rates of children are
not always enforced in delivering subsidies.
4.17 Roads. The effectiveness of support to GAC in roads is rated as moderate. By 2006,
70 percent of roads were considered to be in good condition, but road maintenance needed
improvement (World Bank 2006b). The performance of Bank-funded projects in rural roads
has been more successful than that of urban roads under the RHD. Governance objectives
related to roads that were outlined in the FY06-09 CAS have had negligible outcomes and
have been streamlined in the current CPS. These areas included reducing administrative
barriers and improving governance and efficiency of infrastructure services.
4.18 There is no apparent progress in administrative reforms in RHD, but good progress
has been made with the Operational Risk Assessment (ORA) implementation plan in the
Local Government Engineering Department (LGED). In the area of improving governance,
the Bank contributed to improved efficiency and maintenance and private sector participation
in the Social Investment Program Project (now closed). However, with only 1,939
kilometers of roads supported by the program, the contribution of the Bank to this subobjective
was deemed marginal by IEG (World Bank 2010c: 41).
4.19 The sequencing of three concurrent INT investigations in the roads sector at the same
time as an RHD ORA appears to have had an impact on the ability of project teams to
implement the RTIP and other projects. Although RHD is one of four agencies piloting the
implementation of new procurement rules, the organizational constraints are so severe that
progress has been slow. Instances of mis-procurement, fraud, and corruption in projects
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