The public offices comprise of ministries, attached departments, subordinate offices, autonomous bodies carrying different organisational titles such as, corporation, board, authority, state-owned enterprise (SOE) and company. The persons who man these offices are broadly known as public servants. According to the Bangladesh Penal Code, public servants include, among others, every commissioned officer in the army, navy and air force, every judge, every officer of a court of justice, every person (a) in the service or pay of the government, or remunerated by the government by fees or commissions for performance of any public duty, (b) in the service or pay of a local authority or of a corporation, body or authority established by or under any law or of a firm or company in which any part of the interest or share capital is held by or vested in the government. People's experience is that they are destined to suffer at all tiers of the administration and in a public office whether it is a ministry, department, statutory public authority or SOE although the degree of sufferings may differ from office to office.

However, the experience of the people is that the offices that harass them most are the police department, tax department, land records and survey department, education department, passport department, health department, registration office, ports (airports, seaports and landports), city corporations, utility services bodies and companies such as Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), Rural Electrification Board (REB), Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA), Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO), Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), Gas Transmission and Distribution Companies (GTDC), Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) etc. The common people suffer most at the field offices of these organisations, which directly deal with them and their cases.

The factors that are generally responsible for harassment and hardships of the people in the public offices include, inter alia, (1) corruption, (2) political interference, (3) lack of transparency in rules, regulations and procedures for disposal of cases, (4) absence of proper delegation of power, (5) shifting of problems to others and (6) value of money not delivered. Let me briefly discuss these points below.

Corruption: It is a fact that there was corruption in the public offices prior to independence of Bangladesh. The emergence of Bangladesh as an independent state is the result of supreme sacrifice made by her people. The people expected that in their hard-earned independent country bribery and other forms of corruption would be things of the past and they would get their things done in normal ways. But corruption in the public offices of Bangladesh rather increased rapidly. Hardly any public office or any section of public servants remained free from this ignoble vice. The various commissions and committees on administrative and services reforms, sociologists, researchers and civil society members have tried to identify the factors that have made the public servants corruptible. The factors, among others, are: (i) poor pay package compounded with economic insecurity, (ii) growth of consumerism and the lure of modern luxuries, (iii) private sector resorting to illegal methods such as, rewarding officials for business gains, (iv) poor and delayed enforcement of laws, and (v) society's reticence and / or condoning corruption.

The increase in corruption in the public offices has not only brought sufferings for the people but also adversely affected foreign investment, particularly foreign direct investment (FDI). Various surveys conducted so far have identified corruption as one of the most important impediments to FDI in the country. Corruption in the public offices and in other spheres of the society increased with such rapidity that Transparency International rated Bangladesh as the most corrupt country in the world for four consecutive years starting from 2001.

Political interference: Although the Rules of Business made by the President for allocation and transaction of business of the government and the rules and regulations framed and the executive orders issued by the government from time to time have clearly spelt out the relationship between the ministries and the departments and between the ministries and the autonomous bodies under them, yet there are frequent interferences from the administrative ministries, particularly from the political bosses there, and from other political quarters in the areas or cases that the departments and the autonomous organisations or their field offices can finally dispose of under the existing laws. The recent scandal in the recruitment of class IV employees in the district administration throughout the country is a case in point. Further instances of such political interferences during the periods of the past and present governments may be cited. Such unjust political interferences obstruct the natural course of action(s) and many people become the victims of injustice.

Lack of transparency in rules, regulations, orders and procedures: The rules, regulations, orders and procedures for disposal of business and delivery of services in the public offices are very often not clear enough. Further, many public offices, especially service-oriented ones, use outdated and unnecessary forms. Moreover, there is the culture of secrecy. The Public Administration Reforms Commission in its Report (vol. 1) of June-2000 says, " Even if a public official wants to inform clients about the services his/her organisation provides, the present environment of secrecy does not allow him /her to do so. In a culture of secrecy imposed by law, transparency loses its essence. Behaviour and actions are fettered by specific laws and regulations such as, Official Secrets Act-1923, Evidence Act-1872 and Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1979." Unscrupulous officials take advantage of the absence of openness and lack of transparency. The inevitable results are the sufferings and harassment of the people.

Absence of proper delegation of power: Absence of proper delegation of administrative and financial power from the head offices of the departments, autonomous bodies and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to the field offices causes inordinate delay in the disposal of cases at the field offices. Even at the head offices, power is concentrated in the hands of the chief executive such as chairman, managing director etc. Even routine cases relating to day-to-day administration go to the chief executive for decision. The delayed disposal of cases brings sufferings and hardships to the people.

Lack of sense of belonging and shifting problems to others: Most of the officials of the public offices lack the sense of belonging to their organisations. Individual contentment and cooperation to accept and serve the common goal(s) of the organisation(s) are hard to found among the officials of the public offices. There is a tendency of shifting the problems to others. Professor John Kenneth Galbraith in his book The Culture of Contentment writes: "Encountering a problem, an organisation man turns naturally, automatically, to a subordinate. The latter is told to get on with it. This he then does by turning to an assistant, and the delegation continues. The culture of organization runs strongly to the shifting of problems to others -- to an escape from personal mental effort and responsibility." Professor Galbraith's observation also applies to our public sector organisations. This slows the pace of work and ultimately leads to the sufferings of the people.

Value of money not delivered: The utility bodies such as BPDB, REB, DESA, DESCO, BTTB, WASA and GTDC that provide utility services to the people do not deliver value for money and cause sufferings and hardships to the consumers. Some of the sufferings are: (i) abnormal delay in providing telephone, electricity, gas and water connection after payment of demand draft /deposit; (ii) wrong billing; (iii) delayed delivery of bills leaving little time for clearing the dues without surcharge; (iv) delay in fault repair; (v) delay in refund of deposits.

To conclude, the realities obtaining in the public offices of the country suggest that people's expectations of the administrative system that would be nearly free, if not free, from red tape, bribery and other forms of corruption, seemingly, are not going to be materialised in the near future. Rather, the question is whether people's expectations will ever be materialised.

M Abdul Latif Mondal is a former Secretary to the government.