Problems of co‐ordination in upazila administration in Bangladesh
| Author | A. J. Uddin Minhaj Ahmad |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230110106 |
| Date | 01 January 1991 |
| Published date | 01 January 1991 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
AND
DEVELOPMENT, Vol.
11,25-38 (1991)
Problems
of
co-ordination in Upazila administration in
Bangladesh
A. J. MINHAJ UDDIN AHMAD
Rural
Development Academy, Bogra
SUMMARY
The present government of Bangladesh has extensively reformed the administrative system
and upgraded the previous
thunu
to
upuzilu
(sub-district) to serve as the focal point of develop-
ment administration.
A
new tier
of
local government called
Upazilu Parishad
(UZP) has been
created and a large number of functions have been devolved to this institution along with
the placement
of
central government employees at its disposal. The reformers argue that
the present system will remove the inadequacies
of
the previous administrative system and
will bring about an improvement in the co-ordination of field services at the
upuzilu
level.
However, the actual situation represents a totally different picture. The desired integration-
both vertical and horizontal-and co-ordination in local level planning is non-existent due
to the absence
of
any clear direction from the central government. Proper co-ordination
among the field services in the
upuzilu
administration does not exist due to the anomalous
relation between the
upuzilu
and the national government, including excessive central control;
the involvement of multiple agencies
of
the central government in guiding and supervising;
ambiguity in government thinking; the absence of clarification from the ministries concerned
and agencies on the timing of different development programmes; and conflict over the alloca-
tion of resources. There is also conflict between the different tiers of local government in
respect of authority and resources. Relations between public representatives and officials
at the
upuzilu
level are strained because a clear allocation
of
authority to political executives
is lacking; areas for co-operation among different agencies have not been clarified; and public
representatives and government officials lack mutual respect.
INTRODUCTION
Administratively, Bangladesh is divided into four divisions. Each division is again
divided into several districts and each district is then divided into several
upazilas
(sub-districts). Finally each
upazila
is divided into several unions. From division
to
upazila
different agencies of national government have their own offices or units
to implement government policies. Apart from this, in district and union there are
local government bodies to undertake development programmes with the active parti-
cipation of the local people:
Zila Parishad
(District Council);
Upazila
Parishad
(Sub-
district Council); and
Union
Parishad
(Union Council).
Though the union lies at the grass roots, it does not have the offices of all the
agencies of national government apart from a few field workers from the Directorate
of Agriculture and the Departments of Health and
Family
Planning. The
upazila
is the lowest unit of development administration which has the offices of all the
A.
J.
Minhaj Uddin Ahrnad is Joint Director (Public Administration), Rural Development Acadmy (RDA),
Bogra, Bangladesh.
027
1-2075/91/010025-14$07.00
0
1991 by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
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