Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus on Sunday emphasized the urgent need to implement the Local Government Reform Commission's recommendations without delay.
“Let us not delay. These reforms must move from paper to practice as soon as possible,” he said, after the commission officially handed over its final report to him at the State Guest House Jamuna.
The report recommends a series of proposals, including significant changes aimed at improving services in local government bodies.
Dr Yunus expressed a strong commitment to transparency and public engagement in the reform process. “We will make the full report public so that citizens, experts, and stakeholders can access and understand the reforms being proposed,” he said.
He further added: “In fact, I believe these reforms should be studied in schools to build civic awareness from a young age.”
The Local Government Reform Commission, headed by Prof Tofail Ahmed, submitted the report after months of consultations, research, and fieldwork.
“We are recommending that the Consensus Commission review and reflect on the report,” said the commission chief.
“In the first section, we focused on structural reforms, and in the latter part, we present what we call ‘a single idea to implement a thousand others’ — a framework designed to ensure practical and scalable change,” he added.
Prof Ahmed noted that the goal is to make local government “smarter and more efficient” in delivering public services.
“We’ve dedicated an entire chapter to the role of resource management and suggested that the Local Government Division take on a supervisory role to ensure accountability,” he said.
The report also identifies key challenges facing urban local bodies, particularly the Dhaka City Corporation.
“Departmental inefficiencies and rampant bribery remain persistent issues. From large infrastructure projects to everyday services, corruption flows through multiple layers — project-level, service-level, and inter-departmental. Unless we address these, effective governance will remain a dream,” Prof Ahmed remarked.
