Public Administration Reforms in Bangladesh: Experience and Challenges

Abstract

In the era of development modern and service oriented administration is mandatory that can be able to fulfill the diversified needs of the citizens. To this end many reform initiatives have been taken in Bangladesh for reforming the administration since independence. Many reform commissions and committees were constituted by different regimes. They identified many issues and made many important recommendations for establishing an efficient and service oriented civil service system in Bangladesh. Some international donor agencies also prepared several reports containing many recommendations focusing on good governance and new public management (NPM). However, different regimes faced many challenges to implement those reform programs which still exist in the country. This study reveals that lack of political will, lack of clear vision, unfavorable political culture, bureaucratic resistance, lack of institutional capacity always create a gloomy environment that hinder administrative reform efforts in Bangladesh. It is evident that these factors always existed in Bangladesh for which most of the reform initiatives went into vain. Consequently, a modern and service oriented administrative system has yet to be established in Bangladesh.