Ethical Perspectives in Administrative Reforms in Bangladesh
Ikbal, Mohammad Mahmudul Hossen (2016)
2016
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Administrative reform in developing countries has been a subject of huge scholarly interest. Administrative system that most of the developing countries inherited at the time of independence was heavily loaded with colonial features. Bangladesh was not an exception. Bangladesh was a part of British India until 1947. Thereafter, Pakistan ruled it until 1971. The administrative apparatus Bangladesh inherited from Pakistan was founded on the Weberian style. The apparatus was fundamentally bureaucratic in character and the bureaucracy was classified by centralization and hierarchism. The basic purpose of this type of administration was to dominate people which is contradictory to the concept of ‘good governance’ in a sovereign state. Reforming the administrative system, therefore, became a prioritized task for successive regimes in liberated Bangladesh. But the policy makers of the country have failed to bring about any significant change in the administrative apparatus.
Bangladesh’s failed experience in administrative reforms gives birth to a fundamental research question of ‘why the country has failed in this particular task.’ Absence of ‘ethics management’ in administrative reform process is one of the most important reasons that seriously hindered the success of reform measures in the country. A good number of studies have been conducted so far on administrative reforms in the country but a little attention has been paid to the ethical issues associated with reform process as those studies were intended to identify and analyse the common reasons that thwarted the success of reform implementation in general. This study, however, investigates how the absence of ethics management influenced the reform measures in the country.
Literature review and document analysis have shown that the core values of ethics management have been missing in reform process in Bangladesh. Integrity violation, mostly in the forms of political corruption and conflicts of interest, is a recurring phenomenon in reform measures. Instead of reforming the civil service, successive regimes have capitalized the bureaucracy to strengthen their power over state. This tendency of successive regimes for using the bureaucracy for partisan and personal gain has allowed bureaucrats to resist the reform measures that might bring some changes in their positions and reduce their power within the administrative system. Ultimately, it is the mass populace whose interests have largely been sidestepped. Lack of transparency, a consequence of corruption, further undermined the reform process. Most of the reform bodies were extremely manned by bureaucrats. This rigid pattern of reform bodies discouraged the civil society and international donor agencies to take part in reform process. Moreover, weak accountability mechanism helped the policy makers to shelve the reform recommendations. A number of reform reports have not been revealed to the public let alone implementation. It is imperative to practice the core values of ethics management in reform process if the future reform measures are to be successfully implemented. And it is solely the policy makers’ responsibility to develop an ethical culture for reform process.
Bangladesh’s failed experience in administrative reforms gives birth to a fundamental research question of ‘why the country has failed in this particular task.’ Absence of ‘ethics management’ in administrative reform process is one of the most important reasons that seriously hindered the success of reform measures in the country. A good number of studies have been conducted so far on administrative reforms in the country but a little attention has been paid to the ethical issues associated with reform process as those studies were intended to identify and analyse the common reasons that thwarted the success of reform implementation in general. This study, however, investigates how the absence of ethics management influenced the reform measures in the country.
Literature review and document analysis have shown that the core values of ethics management have been missing in reform process in Bangladesh. Integrity violation, mostly in the forms of political corruption and conflicts of interest, is a recurring phenomenon in reform measures. Instead of reforming the civil service, successive regimes have capitalized the bureaucracy to strengthen their power over state. This tendency of successive regimes for using the bureaucracy for partisan and personal gain has allowed bureaucrats to resist the reform measures that might bring some changes in their positions and reduce their power within the administrative system. Ultimately, it is the mass populace whose interests have largely been sidestepped. Lack of transparency, a consequence of corruption, further undermined the reform process. Most of the reform bodies were extremely manned by bureaucrats. This rigid pattern of reform bodies discouraged the civil society and international donor agencies to take part in reform process. Moreover, weak accountability mechanism helped the policy makers to shelve the reform recommendations. A number of reform reports have not been revealed to the public let alone implementation. It is imperative to practice the core values of ethics management in reform process if the future reform measures are to be successfully implemented. And it is solely the policy makers’ responsibility to develop an ethical culture for reform process.