Some administrative analysts have observed that there is growing divergence between the emerging definition of the problems and issues of development, on the one hand, and the structure of the machinery of government, on the other. While development problems are increasingly viewed in terms of such matters as food, energy, stagflation, employment, quality of life, environment, human settlements, population and rural development, the structure of machinery of government remains organised in terms of classical departments. Changes in the content of public policies also create the need for revision of the machinery of government.

There are other considerations for changes in the machinery of government. To cite an example, there is a growing recognition of the need to promote the use of science and technology for development. However, for effectively pursuing of this policy the respective machinery of government must include arrangements both for the elaboration and application of science and technology policies in general and for the design and use of specific technologies for various sectors. As most problems of development have international dimensions, it is necessary to incorporate in the machinery of government organisational arrangements to deal effectively with such problems. As there is no universally applicable criteria for organising the machinery of government, it is important that Bangladesh review its organisational structure at the apex to ensure that the administrative arrangements are commensurate with its aspirations, opportunities, resources and major concerns.

Area and administration: The local government and territorial organisation of a country generally pre-date the establishment of field offices by sectoral ministries. The growth of urbanisation also tends to make local government jurisdiction inadequate to deal with emerging problems. The commonly used approaches to tackle these problems are reorganisation and rationalisation of local government, regionalisation of development planning and administration and creation of development authorities. The role of local government in national governance in most of the developing countries (Bangladesh included) for various reasons, such as (a) overall scarcity of financial resources, (b) the tendency to concentrate the available resources on capital projects and in a few major cities, (c) reluctance of national authorities to share power, (d) administrative short-comings (of local governments), and (e) tendencies of industrial development and trained manpower to gravitate towards major cities. The effective involvement of local governments in national governance requires conscious and strong efforts through adopting measures such as decentralisation, allocation of greater administrative and financial resources to local authorities and introduction of incentive plans.

The phenomenon of depressed areas within nations poses special problems. Many countries have handled them through deconcen-tration of national offices, introducing special grants and subsidies and extending incentives for industrial growth with particular emphasis on building physical infrastructure. The efficacy of such measures to solve the problems of depressed areas however remains doubtful. More innovative approaches for assuring a greater flow of financial and other resources for the development of depressed areas are urgently needed to bring them up to a par with the national standards.

Public enterprises and authorities: In many developing countries the organisation of public enterprises as public corporations has been the dominant approach. Although the public corporation as a device for implementing various development functions is still popular it is not without its problems. To some critics these have been used sometimes indiscriminately, particularly in non-industrial activities, to skirt the basic problems of reorganisation of public administration. Questions have also arisen about the relationship of public corporations to relevant functional departments and to legislative and political authorities. These bodies need rationalisation and clarifications to (a) establish criteria under which a function, programme or activity is to be organised, (b) formulate sets of standards about the organisation, (c) clarify the role in the national development process. The problems of para-statal bodies like joint ventures are even more complex in terms of their overall management and coordination.

Organisation of public services: The organisation of public services in many cases is literally a combination of hundreds of systems involving different classes, jurisdictions, specialisations, professions and remuneration systems. Current systems of organisation tend to impede allocation of personnel where most needed, to create inequalities and frustrations and to make it difficult to recruit and to accommodate persons with newly required skills and specialisations. What is needed is the rationalisation and redesigning of public service systems to (i) recruit and retain persons with requisite skills for the formulation and implementation of development programmes and plans, (ii) mobilise and allocate trained staff in accordance with development requirements and priorities, (iii) motivate public servants to put their best performance, (iv) avoid the dangers of bureaucratisation, (v) allow maxi-mum use of nationally available expertise, and (vi) ensure congruence between organisational structures and patterns of public service systems, public management and the use of modern management techniques.

Historically, public administration has been more concerned with due process of law and legal techniques than with the expeditious achievement of results. In fact, public administration has to function within legal frameworks and in full observance of due process of law. This is particularly true in matters affecting citizens' rights and obligations.

The advent of many commercial, industrial and economic activities in the public realm as part of the state's role in national development calls for public management capabilities that historically were associated with the working of the private sector. While public administration even in these instances must function within legal frameworks, there is considerable room for use of modern management capabilities of national systems. A variety of modern management techniques such as cybernetics, operations research, systems analysis, cost-benefit analysis, programme evaluation and review technique (PERT), critical path method (CPM), and behavioural science have come to dominate the management literature. Bangladesh also use such techniques but she should be careful as to use them within the constraints of public law and policies.

Many modern techniques are based on the use of computers. However, it would not be advisable to introduce them indiscriminately either because of their assumed prestige value or because of external pressure of one kind or other.

Project formulation and implementation: It is considered very important to improve considerably administrative capabilities to identify, develop and implement development projects. In case of major development projects many developing countries including Bangladesh frequently rely on outside consulting firms and enterprises. It is important that they build their own capabilities for the management of major projects to ensure effective negotiations and supervision even when the projects are actually carried out by outside contractors.

Regulatory administration: This has assumed new importance with the determination of developing countries to exercise effective economic sovereignty over their national resources, and to ensure that their use is in harmony with nationally desirable objectives. The regulatory systems will, however, have to be designed and constantly watched so that these activities do not become conservative or begin to create bottlenecks in the development process.

ABMS Zahur is a retired joint secretary.