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Economists and experts from South Asia region on Saturday underscored the need for fiscal decentralisation in the region, especially in Bangladesh to ensure efficient public service delivery to rural people.
Fiscal decentralisation increases participation of citizens at local level in public service delivery system that enhances accountability and transparency of local government administration resulting in reduction of corruption, they said at the first day of a two-day regional conference on sub-national finance and local service delivery.
South Asian Network on Economic Modelling, World Bank and South Asia Economic Policy Network jointly organised the programme titled 4th South Asia Economic Network Conference at BRAC Centre Inn in Dhaka where researchers, academia and economists from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are taking part.
Former governor of Bangladesh Bank Atiur Rahman, at a session on local government finances and service delivery, said that Bangladesh was the least decentralised country in the region as the share of local government expenditure was only 7 per cent of the total national budget which was 28 per cent in developing countries.
He said that functional governance at local government institutions was still weak in the country though there was an improvement in administrative governance.
Local government can deliver the services like education, healthcare and sanitation better than the central government, he said.
Quality of public expenditure will increase if participation of citizens can be ensured in the process and as global experiences say, fiscal decentralisation increases citizens’ participation, he said.
He said that local government could be empowered to raise more revenue from local sources and adopt various means for fund raising, including borrowing from local market, along with the central government’s fund transfer, for efficient service delivery.
World Bank Bangladesh country director Mercy Miyang Tembon said that access to quality education, healthcare, safe drinking water and sanitation was still seriously constrained in Bangladesh, particularly in the rural areas, though the country made remarkable improvements in human and infrastructure development in recent years.
Factors like the absence of a well-functioning local government institution hinder progress in the delivery of basic services, she said.
Citing international experiences, she said that basic services such as education, healthcare, water, sanitation and local level law and order were often delivered better when their provision was decentralised.
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies senior research fellow Monzur Hossain said that only administrative governance was not enough for local economic development.
Capacity building and accountability of local government officials and participation of citizens in the decision making process can ensure better service delivery to citizens, he said.
In another session on fiscal decentralisation and corruption, former World Bank lead economist in Bangladesh Zahid Hussain said that administrative, political and fiscal decentralisation were needed to reduce corruption in public service delivery process.
Citizen activism at local level should be strong to ensure efficient service delivery and reduction in corruption, he said.
Planning minister MA Mannan, at the inaugural session of the conference, said that public services such as education, electricity, health, sanitation and basic infrastructures should be reached to the doorstep of rural population as service delivery to all people was becoming critically important for inclusive development.
A holistic approach, cooperation from all groups of society and a stable political environment are required to ensure basic service delivery to rural people, he said.
‘You may think that I am saying this [stable environment] to stay at power for the whole life but it is not possible as we will have to go to you in every five-year and accept your judgment,’ he said.
SANEM executive director Selim Raihan, SANEM chairman Bazlul Haque Khondker, World Bank’s South Asia chief economist Hans Timmer, World Bank economist Robert Beyer and researchers and experts from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan spoke at the sessions.
(NA)
