The citizen’s charter and public service delivery in Bangladesh

Abstract

The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh provides that “all powers in the Republic belong to the people . . . every person in the service of the Republic has a duty to strive at all times to serve the people” (GoB 2011). The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has employed nearly one million people (UNDP 2007) to manage its public services. In Bangladesh the bureaucracy with its British colonial legacy is often perceived as apathetic to the needs of the people and even unwilling to listen to them. It tends to resist change and often remains reluctant to accept new ideas and innovations. Citizens are increasingly becoming dissatisfied with the poor quality of service delivery of the government offices. Common people have to wait for a long time in the public offices to get a small clerical job done. They face many difficulties (in terms of demands for bribes, lobbying by influential people, etc.) in getting a job done by public employees. Zafarullah and Siddiquee (2001), for instance, have noted that the public sector of Bangladesh not only rides with various dimensions of corruption such as bribery, rent-seeking and misappropriation of funds, but also the performance of public organizations is adversely affected by excessive lobbying, delays in service provision, pilferage and larceny, irresponsible conduct of officials, bureaucratic intemperance, patronage and clientelism. According to the UNDP (2007), while trying to receive public services, people experience unnecessary harassment and discourteous behavior of civil servants who keep customers waiting for hours before attending to their needs. Since independence in 1971, the GoB has constituted several commissions and committees to recommend measures to reorganize and reform the Civil Service. Nothing substantial, however, has so far been achieved, mainly because of lack of political will, bureaucratic resistance and lack of demand from citizens. Even the last major reform initiative, the PARC Report of 2000, has remained largely unimplemented (Azizuddin 2011). Thus, despite significant efforts, the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) is still largely entrapped in traditional concepts of public administration and civil service (UNDP 2007). The members of the Civil Service are, by and large, unwilling to correct mistakes, and often make unabashed approaches for pecuniary benefits. However, in recent years some strategic inventions have been made by the GoB for changing the

traditional system of service delivery, one of the most important of which is the Citizen’s Charter (CC). The military-backed caretaker government of Fakhruddin Ahmed (2007-2008) pioneered the innovation. A government decision declared on May 8, 2007 required that every ministry, division, wing and attached department formulate and publish its CC on its premises and websites as a tool for enhancing public service quality and ensuring good governance as a whole. The second Shiekh Hasina government (2009-2013) launched the Second-Generation Citizen’s Charter (SGCC) in 2009. At present, approximately 80 percent of public offices display their CCs as a condition set by the government (JICA 2009). The main objective underlying the introduction of the CC is to make public servants more accountable, transparent, responsive and people-friendly. It also aims at bringing changes within the service delivery mechanism by introducing the notion of service choices, a culture of consultation, and practicing the essential mechanism of redressing grievances. Proponents of the CC argue that it will reduce harassment of people and make them aware of their rights by disseminating information about the process and privilege of obtaining public services. The extent to which this innovation has been successful in improving the delivery of services and bridging the gap between the public and public servants has not yet been properly ascertained. The main objective of this chapter is to evaluate the effectiveness of the CC program in terms of delivering public services in Bangladesh and to assess the challenges of making it a success. It explores and analyzes the factors and actors that affect the effectiveness of the CC program in public organizations of Bangladesh. The chapter provides a case study of the Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP), examining different dimensions of the CC introduced in it. Data for the study were collected in 2010. A mixed approach was adopted to conduct this research. Both open-and close-ended (with predetermined options) questionnaires were used to collect information. Three categories of respondents – customers of the DIP, service providers and experts in the relevant fields – were interviewed to gain a first-hand impression about their views of the way the system of the CC worked in the DIP. The total number of respondents was 52. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to analyze and interpret the data. The chapter is organized into several sections. The following section provides a general introduction to the CC, exploring its different dimensions including a review of relevant literature. The third section describes the CC in the context of Bangladesh along with examples from the DIP. The final section critically analyzes issues that are considered substantial for making the CC program successful in Bangladesh.