Name of the Course: Public Administration in Bangladesh

(PA-121)
Topic of the assignment: Administrative Reforms
(National Pay Commission,1972)
Submitted by: Md.Tasneem Siddiquee
Department of Public Administration
University of Dhaka
Class roll: ZR-139-024
Submitted to: Maruf Hasan Rumi
Lecturer
Department of Public Administration
University of Dhaka
National Pay Commission 1972
Introduction
The progression of the administrative system in a state stretches over time and is also modified
by environments and the nature of government which differ not only from country to country but
also between one period and another. This usually happens in all the nations of the world, though
their prevalence varies widely and most frequently in the politically unstable ones. Bangladesh is
a relevant case in point. Since its birth through a baptism of fire in 1971, several reform attempts
have been made to restructure and alter the existing so-called colonial administrative system for
the well-being of the masses.(Tarek and Ahmed,1989)

Administrative reform is the administrative reconstitution of the state institution that targets
rationalization of the administrative machinery, which enhances the quality and capacity of civil
service.(Kalimullah, Hassan and Sarkar,2017) While Caiden(1969, P.65) defines administrative
reform as “an artificial inducement of administrative transformation against resistance.”

This paper discusses the historical background behind the reformation of the Bangladesh
administration to understand why the national pay commission(NPC) in 1972 was formed as a
part of this reformation, and the recommendations made by the commission. It also analyzes
whether or not those recommendations were implemented, the barriers to the implementations,
and concludes the paper.

Historical background behind the formation of the

National Pay Commission(NPC)
The objective of the reformation of Bangladesh’s administration is to make it an effective and
efficient tool of development administration to enhance the participation of the people in
development activities and to replace the colonial legacy.(Tarek and Ahmed,1989) At
independence, Bangladesh inherited an institutional bureaucracy that was snobbish in character,
prejudiced in its outlook, overly ritualistic in its operation style, and rigid in political control
(Zafarullah et al., 2000) The civil service was in mess, crumbled, and perplexed, and parts of it
were highly politicized. It required complete transformation to effectively respond to a new set
of social, political, and economic needs. The existing civil service system was not aligned to
work under a parliamentary framework; bureaucrats of all genres were used to working in a
highly unified structure and were sheltered from political interference in their routine activities.
Before independence, they framed and implemented policies with limited inputs from external
sources, carelessly decided nation-building priorities, exercised the utmost discretion in applying
rules and allocating resources, and unashamedly articulated their interests. (Maniruzzaman,1980)

So it was the challenging and utmost priority for the government right after independence to
reinstate the civil service. To face this challenge, the government formed the Civil
Administration Restoration Committee (CARC) in 1971 to scrutinize and propose methods for
the renovation of civil administration.(Kalimullah, Hassan and Sarkar,2017) In 1972, CARC
submitted its report detailing the examination of the distinct affairs associated with the
administration to be considered by another committee delegated by the prime minister. The
provincial secretariat was converted into the national secretariat with 20 ministries and related
directorates/departments and corporations by the recommendations of CARC (GoB 1973a).

In the first term of the Awami League rule (1972-75), the government assigned two utmost
committees in 1972, namely the Administrative and Services Reorganization Committee (ASRC)
and the National Pay Commission (NPC). The committee/commission was entrusted with the
authority of proposing measures towards reorganizing the central bureaucracy, encompassing
local government, by devolution of power from the central to the local level and a national pay
structure. (Kalimullah, Hassan and Sarkar,2017)

Recommendations made by the National Pay

Commission(NPC)
The National Pay Commission worked in conjunction with ASRC and dealt with several
variables, such as living cost, governmental resources, existing pay incongruities, gravitation and
detainment of specialists and the attainment of efficiency, fairness and work motivations to map
out a practical pay policy. It proposed that a nine-tier administrative structure in agreement with
pay scales could acceptably meet the necessities of the bureaucracy in Bangladesh for the next 5
years. The NPC also suggested a national pay scale consisting of 10 grades.(Kalimullah, Hassan
and Sarkar,2017)
Implementation of the NPC’s Recommendations
The NPC’s recommendation was not approved, let alone implemented, because though in the
new system, the disparity between the highest and lowest scales was reduced, but in doing so
they condensed more than 2,000 existing levels of pay without considering the deleterious effects
this might have on efficiency and morale. (Zafarullah,1987) Later it was compelled to
recommend pay scales based on tiers and groupings suggested by ASRC.ASRC’s
recommendations were, a single classless grading system encompassing all services in the 10
grades, a suitable number of pay levels mapped to the level of skills and duties, correct grading
for each post done by an analysis of the job and so on. However, Unfortunately, the suggestions
of the ASRC also made no effect on the government and remained shelved as collusive
papers.(Kalimullah, Hassan and Sarkar,2017)

Barriers to the implementation of the NPC’s

recommendations
The propositions of NPC for ten pay scales in place of the then 2,200 pay scales were executed
only partly. The non-execution of pay scales for higher civil servants was largely due to the
objection of the generalist civil servants belonging to the erstwhile CSP and East Pakistan Civil
Service (EPCS) cadres. These two groups of officials were dejected because NPC’s propositions
did not provide for improvement in their earnings and associated benefits. Declining economic
circumstances and subsequent price hikes considerably controlled the purchasing capability of
necessary goods by civil servants and contributed to their mounting opposition to the execution
of NPC’s recommendations. This situation was well exploited by superior members of the
erstwhile CSP and EPCS cadres to forcefully obstruct the execution of the propositions of NPC
about mid-level and senior civil servants. (Khan,1989)

Conclusion
The preceding analysis points towards a few conclusions about forming the National Pay
Commission in 1972 as a part of the reformation of administration in Bangladesh. Firstly,
reformation of administration was necessary to make administration an effective tool and to
replace the colonial legacy. Consequently, Initiatives were taken by forming two committees
ASRC and NPC and they also gave recommendations regarding the reformation of
administration but unfortunately, those were never taken into account or maybe implemented
partially. The reason behind NPC’s propositions not being implemented was the then-higher civil
servants’ objection to monopolize their interests. Thus, the formation of the NPC in 1972 and
most of its recommendations went in vain mostly due to these reasons.

Bibliography
Kalimullah, N. A., Hassan, A. R., & Sarkar, M. G. K. (2017). Administrative reforms in
Bangladesh. In Public administration in South Asia (pp. 279-296). Routledge.

Khan, M. M. (1989). Resistance to administrative reform in Bangladesh. Public Administration

and Development, 9(3).

Tarek, M. A., & Ahmed, F. (1989). The political motive of administrative reform in Bangladesh
from 1972 to 1981. South Asian Studies, 6(2), 1.

Zafarullah, H. (2002). Administrative reform in Bangladesh: An unfinished agenda.

Administrative reform in developing nations, 4972.

Zafarullah, H. M. (1987). Public administration in the first decade of Bangladesh: some

observations on developments and trends. Asian Survey, 27(4), 459-476.