It is an unfortunate reality that, despite all the economic and social progress that Bangladesh has made over the last decade, there are still key areas of our national infrastructure which are sorely lacking, to the point where they are holding back our entire nation from progressing.
One such area is our administrative bureaucracy.
If the nation’s populace is its lifeblood, its various administrative bodies are its vital organs. But when the public servants who have been tasked with overseeing our administrative bodies don’t do their job right, the entire system runs the risk of being compromised.
To that end, we appreciate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s recent statement to our public servants about committing themselves fully to the welfare of the people -- the taxpayers who are directly responsible for the salaries, perks, and luxuries that our public servants enjoy.
As things stand, our public administration is prone to inordinate levels of inefficiency that sees, among other things, wait times for basic services mutate into hours, days, and even weeks. Just one trip to our passport office for even the most fundamental of services corroborates this.
Of course, the inefficiency is further exacerbated by the rampant corruption and culture of bribery that pervades our administrative ranks. For a citizen to get any work done at venues such as the city hall, for instance, palms are all but expected to be greased at every step of the way.
The government wants to take the administrative system to the doorsteps of the mass people so that every employee of the republic could perform their responsibilities; but before considering such lofty ambitions, it should make it a priority to root out the problem elements that keep the system, as it exists, from functioning to begin with.
Our nation’s goal of becoming a middle income economy is bound to be jeopardized unless something is done to fix our administrative bureaucracy.
Nothing would be more tragic if that were to transpire.
