What is the Local Government system in Bangladesh:

Local Government Categories and Hierarchies

The rural/regional local government as proposed by the latest commission on local government would have four tiers:

• Gram (Village) Parishads, (40,000);
• Union Parishads (4403); 
• Thana/Upazila Parishads (460); 
• Zila (District) Parishads (64).

Urban areas have a separate set of local governments. The Bangladesh Census Commission recognized 522 urban areas in 1991 (with a population of about 5000 or more) but only about 138 of the larger urban areas among these have urban local governments. The four largest cities have a City Corporation status, while the rest are known as Pourashavas or Municipalities, which again are classified according to financial strength.

Hierarchy of Urban Local Governments

City Corporation	Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi
Pourashavas (Municipalities)	38
Category	Annual income level
Class I Pourashavas	6 million +
Class II Pourashavas	2 million
Class III Pourashavas	Less than 2.5 million

In addition, there are also some urban centers that are under military Cantonment Boards. As the City Corporation and Pourashavas (Municipalities) are true urban local governments, their function, administration and financial structure will be further elaborated on below. The large numbers of small urban centers are administered under the Union Parishad system of (rural) local government. Some urban centers have a fairly large population but have not yet been declared a Municipality and therefore also remain under Union Parishad management.

Local Government Functions

Rural and urban local government bodies are entrusted with a large number of functions and responsibilities relating to civic and community welfare as well as local development. The functions of the Gram Parishads, Union Parishad, Thana/Upazila Parishads and Zila (district) Parishads are elaborate and include amongst other optional functions. The present government in its recent Local Government Institutional Strengthening Report, written by the Local Government Commission in May 1997, has laid down the responsibilities of the various rural and rural/regional local bodies. The Gram Parishad and Union Parishad Bills have been approved on 4 September 1997, while Thana Upazila/Zila Parishad Bills will be placed in Parliament soon.

Rural Local Government Functions

The Gram Parishad Functions are as Follows:

1. Conducting socioeconomic surveys of households, every five years to be used for development plan preparation;
2. Maintain vital statistics like registration of births-deaths, marriage etc.; 
3. Make plans for natural resource management and development; 
4. Supervise management of primary educational institutes; motivate parents to send their children to school and create better awareness for adult and female literacy; 
5. Create awareness for better primary health care; 
6. Maintain law and order and control terrorism, violence against women etc.; 
7. Ensure participation in local and central government development planning; 
8. Encourage co-operatives and NGOs; 
9. Initiate participatory development of local roads, bridges, culverts etc.; 
10. Support various development activities related to agriculture; 
11. Encourage and initiate tree plantation program; 
12. Assist various organizations in their development efforts.

Union Parishads have also been assigned functions quite similar to Gram Parishad functions. In addition, Union Parishads have been assigned with the adoption and implementation of poverty alleviation programmes directly by themselves and through NGOs and co-operatives. The Thana/Upazila Parishads are entrusted with functions similar to Gram Parishads and Union Parishads. In addition, they have the responsibility of making integrated 5-year development plans for the Thana/Upazila on the basis of plans submitted by the Union Parishads. Zila (District) Parishads are responsible for monitoring activities of the Thana/Upazila Parishads, implementing district level economic, social and cultural development program and preparing project proposals for road, bridges and culverts.

Urban Local Government Functions

Pourashavas (Municipalities) and City Corporations constitute the two types of urban local governments. The four largest cities of Bangladesh (Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi) are City Corporations. The functions of Pourashavas and City Corporations are basically similar with one important difference: the 1997 Pourashavas Ordinance categorized the functions of Pourahsavas as compulsory and optional. This categorization does not apply to City Corporations. However, for both Pourashavas and City Corporations functions continue to be seen as compulsory and optional.

Mandatory functions 

• Construction and maintenance of roads, bridges and culverts;
• Removal, collection and disposal of refuse; 
• Provision and maintenance of street lighting; 
• Maintenance of public streets, provision of street watering; 
• Provision and regulation of water supply; 
• Establishment and maintenance of public markets; 
• Plantation of trees on road sides; 
• Regulation of insanitary buildings and prevention of infectious diseases and epidemics;
• Registration of births, deaths and marriages; 
• Provision and maintenance of slaughter houses; 
• Provision and maintenance of drainage; 
• Control over the construction and reconstruction of buildings; 
• Provision and maintenance of graveyards and burning places; 
• Control over traffic and public vehicles.

Optional Functions 

• Checking adulteration of food products;
• Control over private markets; 
• Maintenance of educational institutions and provision of stipends to meritorious students;
• Provision of flood and famine relief; 
• Provision and maintenance of parks and gardens; 
• Establishment of welfare homes, orphanages, prevention of begging and organization of voluntary social welfare services; 
• Establishment of public dispensaries, provision of public urinals and latrines; 
• Establishment of veterinary hospitals, registration of cattle sale and improvement of livestock;
• Celebration of national holidays; 
• Reception of distinguished visitors; 
• Establishment of public libraries and reading rooms; 
• Promotion of community development schemes; and 
• Naming of roads and numbering of houses.

The Pourashavas/City Corporations are empowered to perform a variety of socioeconomic and civic functions, as described above. In practice, however, they cannot perform all these functions owing to the acute paucity of funds caused by poor and irregular collection of taxes, non-realization of taxes from government, semi-government and autonomous organizations for years together and insufficient government grants. The functions actually performed are:

• Construction and maintenance of roads, bridges and culverts;
• Removal, collection and disposal of refuse; 
• Provision and maintenance of street lighting; 
• Provision of water supply; 
• Establishment and maintenance of public markets; 
• Provision, maintenance and regulation of graveyards and burning places; 
• Registrations of birth, deaths and marriages; 
• Maintenance of slaughter houses; 
• Control over private markets; 
• Provision and maintenance of parks and gardens; 
• Naming of roads and numbering of houses; 
• Provision of nominal stipends to primary education institutions; and 
• Slum improvement.

Apart form the formal functions described above, the Pourashavas/City Corporations perform some additional functions such as issuance of certificates and settlement of petty disputes (over ownership/control of land, houses and markets) through discussions with concerned parties and with the help of commissioners and other functionaries. Some of the more important certificates are character, nationality, birth, death and succession certificates. Character and nationality certificates are required for job applications and admission to educational institutions. Birth, death and succession certificates are issued to the legal heirs on request and are also necessary for mutation of land ownership.

During the past decade, 20 Pourashavas and the four City Corporations have also been carrying out an additional function (on project basis) of slum improvement. The funding for this came from UNICEF. Dhaka City Corporation has even made the slum improvement an integral part of activities with its own funding and tries to rehabilitate slum dwellers and street hawkers. Besides, Dhaka recently has started to maintain a City Museum and has begun construction of a large theater for dramatic performance. Some of the Municipalities maintain public libraries.

The Pourashava (Municipal) Parishads and City Corporation Parishads are elected directly by the people. Each Poura Parishad is supposed to have a Chairman and a Commissioner for each Ward, while a City Corporation is supposed to have a Mayor as head of the Parishad (Council) and a Commissioner for each Ward. The number of Wards depends on the size of the city. Although women can contest for direct election, there are also reserved seats for them. These are filled through election of the Chairman/Mayor and Commissioners only. The tenure of an elected urban local government is five years. The latest City Corporation elections were held in March 1994.

Personnel Systems in Local Government

Local government bodies in Bangladesh are managed by a combination of elected people and appointed personnel. The Chairman and members of the Zila Parishads, including women, are all elected by direct vote. In addition, elected Chairmen of Upazilas and Municipalities would also become members of the Parishads, without voting rights. The District Commissioner (or Chief Civil Administrator) would serve as Executive Officer of the Parishad while the MPs elected for the Zila would be available as Advisers to the Parishad. In the case of the appointed people, for such levels as the Thana/Upazila Parishad, Zila Parishads and urban local governments (Pourashavas and City Corporation), there is both staff directly recruited by the local body as well as some sent on deputation (i.e. secondment) from the central government. Appointments at Gram and Union Parishads are all locally done and the people selected are also generally from within the locality.

In the proposed new system, Union Parishad would have a full time Secretary, 9 Mahalladars (Neighborhood Workers) and 1 (Caretaker). There would also be a Tax Collector and an Assistant Secretary, who would also work as an accountant. The Chairman of the Union Parishad is the Chief Executive. In the proposed new system, the Thana/Upazila Parishad would represent officers and employees of all central government administrative and development agencies. As long as they work at the Thana/Upazila Parishad, they serve as seconded officers and employees, (except for the police and judiciary). The Parishad's own staff includes a secretary, an assistant secretary, one accountant, a security guard and one sweeper. The Chairman has a three member personal staff. All officials are answerable to the Chairman. In case of the Zila Parishad; the secretary is a deputed (seconded) official from the government. All other officials such as the administrative officer and others are employees of the Zila Parishad. In respect of Hill Tract District Local Government Parishads, the Deputy Commissioners work as ex-officio Secretaries of the Parishad.

Pourashavas and City Corporation have their own personnel set-up determined by the government. Each of the four City Corporations and a number of Pourashavas has a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) seconded from the central civil service. Under such situation all other officials, whether directly recruited by the Pourahsavas or City Corporation, or coming on secondment, are directly under the CEO. He assists the Chairman or Mayor in the affairs of the Pourahsava or Corporation. He is the custodian of all Pourashava/Corporation records and may also exercise magisterial powers. In the case of Dhaka City Corporation, exception is seen in the fact that all senior level appointments in its services are made by the Mayor. He is also the supreme chief executive of the Corporation making all major negotiations and signing and contracts. For other City Corporations the CEO makes appointments.

Except the Union Parishads, all other local government bodies have officials on secondment, which belong to their respective cadre services. Their parent department indicates their service conditions. On the other hand officials and employees directly recruited by the Union Parishad, Thana/Upazila Parishad and Zila Parishad are guided by the Local Council Service Rules. In the case of Pourashavas and Corporations, these are guided by their respective service rules. The Special Affairs Division under the Prime Minister's Secretariat is responsible for employees of Hill District Local Government Parishads. The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives is the central personnel agency for the management of Local Council Service and Pourahsava and Corporation service.

In the rural and urban local government system, a few of the officials and employees are recruited through election, while others are appointed. The employees in most cases outnumber the elected executives. The local governments recruit the general staff through a set procedure. Government does not earmark any officers exclusively for the local government bodies. Government, however, places some civil servants and technical personnel (e.g. engineers, doctors etc.) with the local government bodies on 'deputation' (secondment) for a specified period (normally 3 years) from its central pool. Such employees or officials are officially barred from belonging to any political party or support any political ideology. There is as of yet no such cadre as the Local Government Service Cadre. Any local government body may appoint temporary class IV (lowest level) employees on a work charge basis to meet urgent requirements.

Service Conditions

The salary scale and service conditions are more or less similar to other government services in the country. In addition to basic salary certain fringe benefits such as house rent allowance, medical allowance, contributory provident fund, gratuity benefits, festival bonus etc. are enjoyed by local body employees. Normal retirement age is 57. Class III and Class IV in large corporations and Municipalities also form unions to uphold their rights and privileges.

Discipline

The Bangladesh Local Council Servants Rules (1968) guide the disciplinary conduct of employees of local bodies. These rules contain grounds for penalization, which include inefficiency, misconduct, corruption and subversion. Enforcement of disciplinary action often becomes difficult due to union pressure.

The Way Ahead

Local government as a political institution to ensure public participation in development activities is yet to take proper shape in Bangladesh. Since Independence in 1971, successive governments have tried to use the local government system for their own political interest. The party or regime in power wanted to make the local government representatives their power base and manipulated the system to this end. In a recent paper Dhaka University Professor of public administration notes that: "The existing administrative structure and elected local bodies do reach the grass-roots level and have almost all the features necessary for participatory decentralized administration. But, this structure has failed so far to perform efficiently for two reasons. Despite the strong support for local government enshrined in the Constitution, the central government has compromised these advantages by exercising control over local government and starving these agencies of resources. Most administrative decisions still remain to be taken centrally. Frequently they involve top-level officials in the secretariat, even some ministers depending on the subject. Several abortive attempts have been made at decentralization, but the system has remained highly centralized. As of such, local bodies are characterized by weak administrative capacity, a limited financial and human resource base and little public participation" (Ahmed 1997).

Aware of the above problems, the present Awami League Government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina set up a high powered Reform Commission. The objective was formulated as follows: "Establishing truly representative democratic local bodies entrusted with administrative and financial powers with a view to expediting Decentralized development process and ensuring spontaneous people's participation in planning and management of local level development" (Ahmed 1997). The intention of the Government is clear and straightforward. It has already shown sufficient commitment, but it still has to prove whether the intention can be transformed into reality. In that respect, the December 1997 election at the 4503 Union Parishads under the new local government provisions was a big test case. It made the Government start realizing it should think of carrying out reforms for the urban local governments, ensuring direct election of women members and that participation of other disadvantaged groups in municipal or urban development needs to be considered seriously as well. In addition, the power of Municipalities and corporations needs to be enhanced, in both political-administrative terms as well as economic terms. Higher degrees of self-reliance on the part of the urban local bodies would be necessary for their autonomous existence and reduction of central control.

References

Ahmed, S.G., Local Government System in Bangladesh: Empowerment, Participation and Development, Round Table on Local Government Reform, TSC, Parliamentary System Council, Dhaka University, October 1997