The cabinet committee on administrative reforms and good governance affairs sits today to discuss the findings and recommendations of a government committee formed to review the functioning of bureaucracy.( The New Age BD)

Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed will chair the meeting at his office, said officials at the Cabinet Division on Monday.

The three-member committee led by additional secretary of the Cabinet Division Md Zahid Hossain earlier submitted a report to the cabinet secretary, Ali Imam Majumder, with an eight-point recommendation aimed at bringing about dynamism and accountability in the administration.

The report to be placed at today’s meeting recommends formation of a national body under an adviser/minister to monitor overall functioning of the bureaucracy, said official sources.

The chief adviser-led cabinet committee, formed on July 8, 2007, has met just twice so far with no concrete decisions made as yet for reforming the public administration and infusing ‘transparency, accountability and dynamism’ in the total system as planned by the present government.

The committee includes finance adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam, food adviser AMM Shawkat Ali, commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman and women and children affairs adviser Rasheda K Chowdhury – all as members.

The five-member body was to come up with specific directives for reforming the public administration for more transparency, accountability and dynamism, said an official concerned referring to the terms of reference of the committee.

It was also supposed to give directives for career planning and improving performance of the government employees and officials.

According to the findings of the three-member committee, most ministries and divisions tend to avoid the administrative and financial responsibilities delegated to them, causing delay in the bureaucratic functioning and thereby affecting service to the public.

‘We have found many files unnecessarily travelling from a senior assistant secretary to the secretary causing procrastination in the functions of the bureaucracy…[Such attitude] hinders service delivery’, Zahid Hossain told New Age at his office on submitting the report on October 16.

He said the committee had recommended formation of a central body to monitor the bureaucracy’s functioning.

The inquiry committee found that some officials kept files pending for an indefinite period without any logical ground although the files, as per rules, should be passed on within three days at each level. The files, on the contrary, travel from the bottom towards the top level in most cases whereas maximum number of them could be disposed of at the deputy secretary or the joint secretary levels, the committee observes.

The report says that Rules of Business and the Secretariat Instructions are not properly maintained in disposal of files.

In its second meeting in late July, the committee on administrative reforms ordered the formation of the inquiry committee to look into whether the government instructions regarding the delegation of administrative and financial powers were being properly carried out.

Later on August 6, 2008, the government formed the three-member committee asking it to submit a report with recommendations on its findings. The committee conducted a random survey of 11 ministries at the secretariat to prepare the report.

The move came as the bureaucracy reportedly plunged into a kind of inertia following anti-corruption drives by the army-led taskforces across the country, tremendously affecting the implementation of the government’s annual development programme and its economy as well.

After assuming office in January, 2007 under the state of emergency, the government of Fakhruddin Ahmed embarked on the ambitious plan to impart dynamism, accountability and transparency into the administration which remains a far cry although almost two years have elapsed.