PAD: 201
Handout-2 (MrM)

Public Administration in Bangladesh

Structure of Bangladesh State

The Bangladesh constitution provides for a Parliamentary form of government with the Prime Minister as Chief Executive and a President as the head of the State with very circumscribed powers. The President is elected by Parliament and the Prime Minister is a Member of Parliament.

The Prime Minister appoints and heads a Cabinet of Ministers which is collectively responsible to Parliament. The Unicameral Parliament is the supreme legislative authority as well as the ultimate repository of public accountability.

The Executive is organized on the basis of Ministries and within Ministries, by divisions. The system is two tiered: the Secretariat is responsible for policy, and oversight and coordination of government departments, agencies, district administration. A politically appointed Minister heads each Ministry, while a permanent civil servant is the Ministry’s administrative head and Chief Accounting Officer.

. How does the administrative structure look like?

-Central Admin (Secretariat and other government departments at the centre)
-Divisional Admin
-District Admin
-Upazila Admin
-Union (No. Government official)

Under the close supervision of the district administration, there is a local government system composed of elected union parishads and municipal pourashavas and appointed thana and district committees. The local authorities have little capacity or authority to collect revenues and depend heavily on central government transfers.

While some reform of local government aimed at putting in place a new system of elected local councils has been initiated, progress has been slow and is still incomplete. The central government is reluctant to give local authorities fully delegated control over their own finances and personnel. The consequence