Electricity Crisis of Bangladesh: Result of Organizational Inefficiency?

Abstract

It is believed that the organizational inefficiency of the ‘BPDB’ and ‘Power Division’ of Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources (MPEMR) of Bangladesh is the main cause for current electricity crisis. Although there are changes in public sector management in the electricity sector of Bangladesh due to the NPM, the organization continue to value the bureaucratic and hierarchical organizational culture. Bangladesh government has taken several programs and has adopted policies for privatization and public-private-partnership. Still the Bangladesh government has not succeeded to mitigate the crisis. This industry faces long time negligence, corruption and inefficiency. Currently the crisis situation has become acute due to inadequate fund, weak governance and above all inefficiency. But the political interferences in organizational management, in bureaucratic activities, in personnel management and even in private investment process, are creating a huge problem for the development of this sector. This paper defines the Organizational management, efficiency, and weak governance of Bangladesh’s electricity industry. This paper examines the extent to which the electricity crisis of Bangladesh is the result of organizational inefficiency of the ‘BPDB’ and ‘Power Division’ of Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources (MPEMR) of Bangladesh. This organizational inefficiency is actually shared between inefficiency of public organization and political interferences. It is discussed in this paper not only the organizational inefficiency causes the electricity crisis but also political interference, wrong policies , inadequate fund also responsible. This paper will show how the organizational culture, structure and strategies of the ministry and BPDB have resulted in the crisis. Moreover country’s corrupted and chaotic political system, the roles of parliament and civil servants are also discussed in this essay. Current electricity crisis can be considerably overcome by increasing the efficiency of the ‘Power Division’ as well as by stopping the political interference in decision making and in bureaucracy.