Governance of Local Development Projects in Bangladesh: A Study on Two Upazilas

Abstract

Good quality of governance in project management is one of the preconditions for proper utilization of project resources as well as for economic development of any country. In the context of Bangladesh, poor governance in every stages of project cycle results in poor project performance. In Bangladesh, available literatures indicate that very few researches have been made to study local development projects undertaken by the Upazila Parishads under the Annual Development Programme (ADP). Most of the previous studies focused on the role of the Upazila Parishads in the socio-economic-politico perspective. But governance perspectives especially in the management of local development projects have not been adequately studied at the Upazila level. The main focus of this study is to understand existing governance in the development projects being implemented under the central government’s grant by the Upazila Parishad in Bangladesh. Specific objectives of the study include reviewing existing legal and institutional framework of development projects, analyzing and assessing quality of governance of development projects taken by the Upazila Parishad. The research questions were: whether the existing legal institutional framework of development projects at the Upazila level was suitable for ensuring effective governance; whether the key stakeholders were effectively involved in the different stages of project cycle; whether the resources of the development project were utilized properly; whether the existing practices adopted in project management were suitable for ensuring quality of governance; how far intended benefits achieved by the projects; and to what extent governance issues, such as participation, accountability, transparency, effectiveness, and efficiency are ensured in the local development projects. Looking into these research questions the thesis argues that development projects of Upazila Parishads are suffering from poor quality of governance due to poor governance environment in different stages of project cycle. The study was conducted through adopting a qualitative method. Two Upazilas were selected purposively based on socio-economic conditions. A sample survey was conducted among the villagers of the two Upazilas. Key informants, focus group discussions and researcher’s observations were extensively used to collect information and the analysis of the study. Governance is a multidimensional concept and a multi-disciplinary crosscutting issue which has been perceived in different ways by scholars, practitioners and international organizations. Considering complexity of context and circumstances, to have a widely accepted definition of governance is very difficult. Here governance is understood as a structure, a process, a mechanism and a strategy which could be either good or bad. Generally good governance is perceived as important factor for accelerated socio-economic development that depend on proper practices and adoption of some indicators or principles that are commonly understood as participation, transparency, accountability, free of corruption, efficiency and effectiveness. Moreover, these indicators are directly or indirectly inter-related and inter-dependent. Project’s success or failure is associated with these indicators as found in the document survey. In this regard, for ensuring ‘value for money’ by the development project, every stage of project management needs to adopt some governance values, principles, methods and strategies. Governance issues in the existing legal framework were examined highlighting constitutional provisions on local government as well as guidelines and directives of development project management with regard to ADP-projects of the Upazila Parishad. The study suggests that local government is responsible for preparation and implementation of plans for public services and economic development according to the Constitution of Bangladesh. The Act, rules and regulations that guide operation and management of development projects of the Upazila Parishad were analyzed to understand strengths and weaknesses in the governance perspective. Review of legal institutional framework shows that key governance issues such as active citizen’s participation, transparency, people’s centric accountability, efficiency and effectiveness in the project management were poorly reflected. A number of conditionalities imposed by the central government in selecting development projects likely limit autonomy of Upazila, scope of community participation as well as accountability to community, resulting in less inclusive public policy at the local level. Role of different institutions such as standing committees, elected representative and bureaucrats were found less effective for ensuring quality of governance in project management due to many reasons such as personal or narrow interest of policy makers, poor supervision and monitoring, lack of clear guidelines of transparency, accountability and so on. As a result, desired results of government investment have become diluted and weaknesses and limitations in the existing legal-institutional framework may make counter-productive results. Analysis on ADP-projects of the two studied Upazila Parishads show that Upazila Prishad in Bangladesh has implemented on an average 54 to 60 projects every year under their ADP-allocation which were predominantly small-sized. This trend has been prevailing for a long time. Findings of the study show that in the last five years the ADP-projects under the Adarsha Sadar were distributed among the unions unevenly while in Homna, projects were distributed almost equally. Local leaders, especially UP Chairman who are majority members in the Upazila Parishad prefers equal distribution of grants as a traditional practice and it has been accepted as strategy of avoiding of conflicts and confrontation. Most of allocation was invested in physical infrastructure development, especially in transport and communication sub-sector. Projects related to fisheries and livestock development, small and cottage industries, intensive crops programme, seed supply, social forestation, fruits and vegetable production, the health and social welfare sector were less preferred. Based on empirical evidences, it was found that local ADP-projects of the studied Upazila Parishads suffered from low quality of governance in different stages of project-cycle due to poor reflection of community priorities, poor active community participation, limited access to project information, weaknesses of central government’s directives, weak accountability, transparency, monitoring and supervision, high corruption, unfair political interference. As a result, performance and outputs of development projects as intended was less fulfilled. At the macro level, Bangladesh has been facing a serious governance crisis in political, administrative and economic spheres. Nature of governance problems is complex and multidimensional that varies sector to sector or institution to institutions or local to national level. Some common problems of governance of Bangladesh are corruption, politicization, weaknesses of bureaucracy, lack of accountability and transparency, poor people’s participation, too much centralization etc. As a result, performance in the government sectors has not been encouraging as expected. Many studies and reform commission have detected causes and factors of poor governance of Bangladesh and provided a number of recommendations and suggestions to overcome those problems. But very few measures have been implemented properly…………………..