Non-interference in civil service underscored

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Author / Source : STAFF REPORTER

Dhaka, June 22: Emphasising the need for immediate reforms in the country’s dismal civil service, experts, top academicians, bureaucrats and media personalities on Wednesday recommended that the service must be made performance-based and result-oriented and be free from undue political interference.
The experts, who addressed a roundtable discussion on “Civil Service Reform” jointly organized by The Independent and Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) in the city on Wednesday, also observed that it was a constitutional obligation of the government to pass a Civil Service Act, which would help make the service cadre efficient enough to meet the challenges ahead. Dr Gowher Rizvi, foreign affairs adviser to the Prime Minister, told the meeting that a Civil Service Act would be passed by the government very soon and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself was serious about it. He pointed out that since Independence , as many as 19 commissions had been set up on civil service reforms but to no avail.
Dr Rizvi, also a renowned academician, said that without a sound and efficient civil service system, a government could not deliver the most important thing it should -- social justice. He said transparency in the recruitment and promotion was one of the challenges that faced reforms in the service.
He observed that the private and non-profit sectors were luring away the best people these days; earlier the best people vied for a post in civil service. Referring to the regular training that has made the armed forces a very skilled institution, the adviser to the Prime Minister also stressed the need for providing the finest training to the civil servants.
The academician said that political interference in civil administration, a regular feature of the administration, must be stopped and that due emphasis should be laid on meritocracy and performance to develop the service into an efficient institution.
Dwelling on the critical issue of quota system, Dr Rizvi said there might be political compulsions behind the quota system in recruitment but the system should be time-bound as it goes against the spirit of merit-based recruitment.
Dr Farooq Sobhan, president of the BEI, said no country could progress without an effective and efficient civil service. The bureaucracy has gone through some changes over the years, he said adding, now it is imperative for the civil servants to be more responsive towards the private sector which has witnessed exponential growth in the present era.
An efficient Civil Service Act and its implementation could make our bureaucrats more acceptable; he said adding, there are some key factors for the success of that including the issue of motivating bright minds, creating certain skills and expertise and encouraging civil servants to think out of the box.
Dr Sobhan said the focus of bureaucracy should be on implementation and facilitation. “The bureaucrats should ensure how to speed up the process of implementing decisions,” he added.

Dr SA Samad, executive chairman of the Board of Investment (BoI), said there was once a time when the very best students used to join the civil service, but unfortunately now the best and brightest preferred to go abroad or looked for a job in the private sector with a handsome pay-check.
Dr Samad said he had quit a job with a much better salary only to join the civil service because, during his time, the job of civil servant was very prestigious. “But do we see the same attitude now?, he wondered.
Terming the current civil service a deteriorating version of the one the country had 40 years back, he said training at the civil service academy was much generalized now. “We have to keep in mind that one size doesn’t fit all,” he said adding, time has come to train the bureaucrats in accordance with the fields they would be working in so that they can serve the people better.
Dr Samad also said the quota system in the civil service should be gradually abolished.
Enam Ahmed Chowdhury, former BoI chairman, said that for a civil service reform to take place, a consensus and a multi-party approach was required. He suggested that to put the bureaucracy in the fast lane, more young people with specialization should be taken on board.
“If we are serious about making some development then we should go for specialized training, not a generalised one that the bureaucrats are now getting from the civil service academy,” Chowdhury said.
Mahbubul Alam, editor of The Independent, who was also an adviser to the former caretaker government, said reform in the civil service was necessary to create an accountable and transparent bureaucracy which could provide better service to the people. ATM Shamsul Haque, former secretary and director of CIRDAP, said strong political will was needed to reform the civil service. “For a government, the best time to effect civil service reforms is when it just comes to power,” he said.
He said that in many countries, the Civil Service Act had been introduced long ago to ensure the rights of the bureaucrats. “An Act can protect the interest of the bureaucrats and it can create a performance-based and result-oriented administration,” said Shamsul Haque who headed the last of the 19 commissions formed so far to put in place a Civil Service Act.
Ghulam Rahman, chairman of Anti-corruption Commission (ACC), said before reforming the civil administration, the government should determine what would be the role of the politicians and the civil servants.
“At present, politicians are influencing the process of recruitment, transfer, posting and promotion of civil servants and that has taken away much of the service’s glory,” he said.
“At present, the civil servants work only to appease the high-ups. And that’s the reason why they fail to meet the expectations of the masses,” added Rahman who is also a former secretary.
The head honcho of the anti-graft body emphasised that civil servants should be given basic training by recognised centres to make them efficient.
Ali Imam Majumder, former cabinet secretary, advised the government to implement the Shamsul Haque Commission report on reforms in the civil service.
“The immediate past caretaker government took the initiative to implement the report, but they didn’t have time to do it,” he said.
Majumder pointed out that most of the field-level officials, who work in districts and upazilas as deputy commissioners and upazila nirbahi officers, are under the influence of party politics. Saiful Bari , chief advisor to satellite channel ATN Bangla, said implementation of Civil Service Act was more important than enacting it.
“The government enacted the rights to information Act a few days ago, but the authorities concerned are yet to implement it properly due to bureaucratic tangle,” he said.
“The civil servants should first change their attitude and mindset to do justice to their service,” the added.
Bari suggested that steps should be taken to pick and appoint brilliant people in the service, chalk out a handsome pay structure and keep the service free from politics.
Prof Harunur Rashid, associate editor of The Independent, said if the very mentality of the country’s politicians was not changed, then very few could be achieved by just forming Acts.
“The civil servants impose some sort of self-censorship on themselves as they can’t work freely,” he said adding, a good number of high level officials are made officers on special duty if they fall from political grace.
KZ Islam, managing director of the Nirman International Ltd said that the civil service should be free of any political influence and that the quota system should be abolished as it stops creating equal opportunity for all.

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