Overview of Bureaucratic Accountability and Efficiency in Bangladesh

Scholarly Research Paper from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: South Asia, printed single-sided, grade: -, - (National Institution of Development Administration(NIDA)), course: Graduate School of Public Administration (GSPA), language: English, abstract: In pluralistic societies, all over the world bureaucracy plays a predominant role for bringing socialchange, transformation, modernization and development. But in Bangladesh bureaucracy represents adismal picture and suffers from various ills. Standing on the threshold of the 21st century when thewhole world is experiencing cataclysmic change in the sphere of political transformation, economicglobalization, technological innovation, media revolution and rapid growth of the nation states- it isnow quite exigent to rearrange or reorganize the state machinery for coexisting with the changedworld order. In consonance with the changes- the role, function and responsibility of bureaucracyshould be devised in a way that it can ensure its productivity and efficiency by creating an enablingcondition for development. Absence of efficiency, transparency, accountability, representationalpolitical culture, institutional weakness of political, social and economical apparatus and malfunctionamong those systems has made the bureaucratic system in Bangladesh despicable and disdainful. Thepaper, ipso facto, aims at unravelling the issues related with the concept of bureaucracy, the role ofbureaucracy in the third world with special emphasis on Bangladesh, depicting a brief sketch aboutthe traditional and development bureaucracy in Bangladesh. Lastly, but not the least, somesuggestions to make the bureaucracy accountable, efficient and responsive to the people's demandsand aspirations have been given.