Bangladeshi Bureaucracy: A question mark?
To be very frank, I didn’t have the opportunity to experience any incident related to bureaucracy in my country. So, I don’t know what to call it- fortune or misfortune?Well, I will leave it up to the readers as I am sharing a story experienced by my cousin in this concept.
The incident happened two years ago. My cousin went to attend admission test at BRUR(Begum Rokeya University of Rangpur). But unfortunately he lost his admit card, reg. card and other essential papers on his way to home. Immediately he communicated with the Education Board and sought their help. In the meantime he got to know that he had passed in the admission test. For this, he needed the papers urgently. As we know, one has to pay minimum fee to get back missing papers from education board. But in this case they demanded ‘extra’ or ‘more’ (whatever you call it) for giving him the papers. As it was urgent, he didn’t have any option than to pay ‘extra’. He agreed and they promised to give the paper on that day before his admission. After waiting him all day long at the specific date, the papers was given at 8 o’clock at night and unfortunately he could not manage to reach Rangpur University within 2 pm the next day. As a result, his admission at Rangpur University was cancelled.
From this incident it is clear that despite paying more than the fixed amount,they failed to handover the papers in time. It caused a great loss to him as his admission was being cancelled.
Isn’t it a clear picture of corruption?Are they loyal to their responsibility? In my perspective it is a big ‘No’. Because as a public servant it was their duty to return the papers in time. 1st of all they didn’t do the work till my cousin payed them ‘extra’.Most importantly, even after taking ‘extra’ they could not manage to hand over the papers in time as they didn’t feel any importance in it. They just trifled with their responsibility. According to Weber it is called ‘Informal Corruption’ When it is difficult to find the person guilty. As a result the corruption in the bureaucracy is increasing. We can also call it as a sign of corruption. There is a Weberian principle that when a bureaucrat in his full working time he can do his work according to his wish. Does it mean that he will be committed with such corruption?Does it mean that there will be no more loyalty to their responsibility? If is the true picture of our bureaucracy then what will be the future of the bureaucracy of Bangladesh??
