Governance, in theory and practice and budget, has been the subject of intense discussion and indepth study both in the developed and developing countries. Attaining development target through good governance could be termed as the ultimate goal of the budgetary allocations of Bangladesh for Financial Year (FY) 2016-17. In fact the politics of Bangladesh’s present government are based on its development activities, based on good governance. This has profound impact upon the national political life of the country. The echo of such perspectives could be discerned from the statement of Aaron Wildavsky. Former President of American Political Science Association (APSA) Professor Aaron Wildavsky’s (2001) Budgeting and Governing is a collection of essays showing his ideas on budgeting from the beginning of his career to the end. These articles are on the vital, often politically tense, relationship between budgeting and governing. According to Wildavsky, “When a process involves power, authority, culture, consensus, and conflict, it captures a great deal of national political life.” In his another article titled “The Politics of the Budgetary Process” Aaron Wildavsky challenges traditional normative approaches to a theory of budgeting and proposes a political basis for understanding the budget process. Davis, Dempster and Wildavsky (1966) in “A Theory of the Budgetary Process” found that, “the most important aid to calculation is the incremental method. Budgets are almost never actively reviewed as a whole in the sense of considering at once the value of all programs as compared to all possible alternatives. Instead, this year’s budget is based on last year’s budget, with special attention given to a narrow range of increases or decreases.” Wildavsky was interested in budgeting because of what it could tell us about the classic questions of politics: who gets what, how and why? ‘Government budget’, ‘good governance’ and successes of developmental efforts are important and essential components of ‘politics’ in Bangladesh. Budget and good governance in Bangladesh
Bangladesh
constitution has adequate provisions for good governance. It says that it shall be a fundamental aim of the State to realise a society free from exploitation in which the rule of law, fundamental human rights and freedom, equality and justice, political, economic and social, will be secured for all citizens
Arun Kumar Goswami
Governance, in theory and practice and budget, has been the subject of intense discussion and indepth study both in the developed and developing countries. Attaining development target through good governance could be termed as the ultimate goal of the budgetary allocations of Bangladesh for Financial Year (FY) 2016-17. In fact the politics of Bangladeshs present government are based on its development activities, based on good governance. This has profound impact upon the national political life of the country. The echo of such perspectives could be discerned from the statement of Aaron Wildavsky. Former President of American Political Science Association (APSA) Professor Aaron Wildavskys (2001) Budgeting and Governing is a collection of essays showing his ideas on budgeting from the beginning of his career to the end. These articles are on the vital, often politically tense, relationship between budgeting and governing. According to Wildavsky, When a process involves power, authority, culture, consensus, and conflict, it captures a great deal of national political life. In his another article titled The Politics of the Budgetary Process Aaron Wildavsky challenges traditional normative approaches to a theory of budgeting and proposes a political basis for understanding the budget process. Davis, Dempster and Wildavsky (1966) in A Theory of the Budgetary Process found that, the most important aid to calculation is the incremental method. Budgets are almost never actively reviewed as a whole in the sense of considering at once the value of all programs as compared to all possible alternatives. Instead, this years budget is based on last years budget, with special attention given to a narrow range of increases or decreases. Wildavsky was interested in budgeting because of what it could tell us about the classic questions of politics: who gets what, how and why? Government budget, good governance and successes of developmental efforts are important and essential components of politics in Bangladesh.
The processes for shaping how to elevate, distribute and expend civic resources constitute one of the fundamentals of government can be summed up as budgeting, implying that budgeting is one of the principal functions of government. According to Aaron Wildavsky (1961), a budget is (a) a prediction of expenses; (b) the link between financial resources and human behavior in order to accomplish policy objectives; (c) a representation in monetary terms of governmental activity; (d) a record of the outcomes of the struggle over poitical preferences; and attempts to allocate scarce financial resources through political processes in order to realize disparate visions of the good life.In this regard, two most pertinent definitions, provided by two noted political scientists of the world, David Easton and Harold Dwight Laswell could be mentioned.
In his ground breaking book, A Framework for Political Analysis, published in 1965 David Easton defined politics as those interactions through which values are authoritatively allocated for a society. Easton sees politics as human activity involved in the operation, or functioning, of the political system- activity concerned with authoritative decision making and action by the government and action resulting in an authoritative allocation of values for the society.
By the word value, Easton means any essential value in life. One set of values may be tangible, or material, in formi.e., in the form of money, property, and/or other economic goods, services, and conditions. Another set of values may be intangible; that is, the values may be symbolic, ideological, cultural, ethical, moral, or religious in character. For our present purpose, to examining the connection between budget and governance, the tangible or material values are considered.
Another definition of Politics is given by Political Scientist Harld Lasswell. Lasswells work Politics: Who Gets What, When, How (1936) served as the standard lay definition of politics. Politics, according to Lasswell, is concerned with determination, by official governmental decision making and action, of (1) who in political society receives what benefits, rewards, and advantages and how much of them they receive, (2) when they receive the benefits, rewards, and advantages, and (3) the methods by which they receive them. Conversely, politics is also concerned with determining, by governmental decision making and action, (1) who in society is denied what benefits, rewards, and advantages, (2) when and how long they are denied them, and (3) the methods by which they are subjected to such deprivations.
In fact, budgeting is one of the most rational and acceptable means through which governments allocate resources to provide the goods and services needed to improve the well-being of people. In other words, budget provides the instrument and basis for resource mobilisation and allocation to government strategic areas and national priorities in order to meet macroeconomic objectives. It is the extent to which these objectives are achieved that provides the opportunity to make the citizens of a community better off.
Good governance entails accountability and transparency in the allocation of both social goods and social burdens. It entails the welfare of the generality of the people rather than the welfare of a particular sector of the society or organization. Good governance considers all (larger segment) while bad governance promotes the welfare of less number of people.
Effectiveness and efficiency are component of good governance. In this regard, good governance means those processes and institutions produce results that meet the needs of society while making the best use of resources at their disposal. The concept of efficiency in the context of good governance also covers the sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of the environment.
Constitutional arrangement for good governance:
Bangladesh constitution has adequate provisions for good governance. The preamble of the constitution says for rule of law. It provides that it shall be a fundamental aim of the State to realise a society free from exploitation in which the rule of law, fundamental human rights and freedom, equality and justice, political, economic and social, will be secured for all citizens. Article 11 of the constitution states about democracy. The Article provides that the Republic shall be a democracy in which fundamental human rights and freedoms and respect for the dignity and worth of the human person shall be guaranteed. Good governance guards democracy and guarantees political stability in the country.
Article 19 of the constitution provides that the State shall endeavor to ensure equality of opportunity to all citizens. The State shall adopt effective measures to remove social and economic inequality between man and man and to ensure the equitable distribution of wealth among citizens, and of opportunities in order to attain a uniform level of economic development throughout the Republic. Article 27 provides that all citizens are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law. Article 28(2) provides that Women shall have equal rights with men in all spheres of the State and public life. Article 29 mentions that there shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in respect of employment or office in the service of the Republic. Article 22 of the constitution says that The State shall ensure the separation of the judiciary from the executive organs of the State. Article 7 of the constitution provides that the Constitution is the solemn expression of the will of the people and the supreme law of the Republic, and if any other law is inconsistent with this Constitution shall be void.
Bangladesh Budget and good governance
The Jatiya Sangsad (JS/National Assembly), on June 30, 2016 has passed countrys biggest-ever national budget of Tk.3,40,605 crore for the FY 2016-17. This is the 3rd budget of the current Awami League government. In 2000 noted economists Prof. Rehman Sobhan has made a forecast that if Bangladesh could restructure its politics, this would open the country upto tremendous development change. At that time Prof. Sobhan had actually expressed his frustration about the parliamentary politics of Bangladesh. In his paper titled State of Governance and Budget Responses Professor Sobhan said that,
the country was now (i.e. in the year of 2000) faced with a political duo-poly in which two major political parties managed to neutralize each other and then created major problems for nature of the political culture of the country itself. In such circumstances, it was important for both political parties to recognize the respective legitimacy as well its strength of their rivals. They should thereby establish a process of political accommodation to find effective solutions to political problems and work out certain ground rules on how the political system would function.
It is very much likely that Prof. Sobhan did not consider the ideological beliefs of liberation war, for that reason he was asking to accommodate even the anti-liberation forces. Because after this statement, at least two persons who were later punished with death sentence by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) for their involvement in the crimes against humanity in the liberation war of 1971 became the powerful ministers of the government in 2001.
However, after 15 years of Prof. Sobhans frustration, and during FY 2016-17, while the Awami League government declared annual budget for eighth consecutive financial year, Bangladesh is known as role model of development for other developing countries. It has become possible for the pro-liberation government under the leadership of Bangabandhus daughter Sheikh Hasina.
As a result of governments measures for good governance, the country has become the role model of development. The measures of the government in this regard are, public finance management, pension, public administration, rule of law, financial sector, land management, survey and record keeping, capital market, insurance, and statistics and information management.
The Finance Minister in his budget speech titled, Marching towards growth development and equitable society has set priorities matched with political commitment of the government. Accordingly, the communication sector has received the highest allocation in the development outlay followed by the human resources, agriculture and power and energy. The budget forecast the GDP growth rate at 7.2 percent while keeping inflation within 5.8 percent. The new budget has allocated Tk.2,15,744 crore as non-development expenditure while Tk.1,10,700 crore under Annual Development Proramme (ADP).
According to budget documents, the revenue collection target for the FY has been estimated at Tk.2,42,752 crore which is 12.04 percent of the GDP. Of the total projected revenue receipts, Tk.2,03,152 crore will be collected by the National Board of Revenue (NBR), while Tk.32,350 crore will come as non-tax revenues and the rest of Tk.7,250 crore from non-NBR collection. Regarding the proposed revenue collection target for upcoming FY, finance minister said, This is really a high ambitious target. This target will be 35.4 percent higher than that of the FY 2015-16. This money will be collected mainly from four sources, namely, income tax, VAT, supplementary duty and import duty. The budget deficit for the next fiscal year will be Tk.97,853 crore (5.0 percent of the GDP), which was Tk.86,657 crore in the FY 2015-16. Out of the total deficit budget, Tk.38,947 crore will be financed from external sources while Tk.61,548 crore from the domestic sources. Of domestic financing, Tk.38,938 crore will come from banking system and Tk.22,610 crore from other non-Banking borrowing sources. The finance minister, however, in his budget kept the tax-exempted income threshold (Tl2.50 lakh)for individual taxpayers and company tax rates unchanged for the next fiscal year. He also listed a number of programmes undertaken in the past seven years. The programmes include Ekti Bari Ekti Khamar(One House, One Farm), social protection, ghore ghore bidyut (electricity in every household), community clinic and child development, women empowerment, ashrayan (shelter), educational assistance, Digital Bangladesh, environment protection, and investment development.
Bangladesh is a secular, non-communal and non-Arab Muslim majority country, which has recently become a focus of interest to the West, for its achievements in socio-economic development indicators and economic growth. The country is mostly homogenous. But the most undermining feature of such a homogenous society is the harmfull activities of the criminals, anti-liberation forces; those opposed the liberation war of the country in 1971. They had assassinated father of the nation in 1975 and altogether stopped the trials of the offenders of crimes against humanity and war criminals of 1971 liberation war. The activities of such criminals have seriously undermined the causes of good governance in Bangladesh. The government under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, by taking suitable measures, has been able to bring about remarkable change in the situation. Not only that, during the Awami League government the country has demonstrated tremendous success, that has been termed as role model for other developing countries. According to the observers, in spite of the challenges, the governance was better often than its reputation. The state apparatus did focus on specific development goals with considerable success. (Marianne Scholte 2014)
The targeted financial support in Bangladesh to get girls to go to high school rather than, for example, get married, has helped dramatically shifted the needle on human-development indicators there. According to Christine Hunter(2016), country representative for UN Women in Bangladesh, Gender equality is good for economic growth and good human development. That is really part of what explains the quite remarkable achievements in Bangladesh.
For now, Bangladeshs manufacturing prowess is primarily focused on the garment sector, which has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry that employs 3.6 million people and accounts for 78 percent of the countrys exports.
The country has brought down poverty from 56.7 percent in 1991 to 22.4 percent today. Bangladesh has graduated from the UNDPs low human development category to medium, and also the World Banks lower income country status to lower-middle income. The government realizes that investing in human capital targeting the countrys large young population would pay rich dividend.
As such, the Bangladesh government has put particular emphasis on education and health for all. At present the country offers stipends to 13.4 million students from poor families and free education for girls up to higher secondary level. The people in rural Bangladesh receive over 200 services from over 5,275 Union Digital Centres. They get access to health care services from over 16,500 IT-connected Community Health Clinics. Now the results of womens economic and political empowerment through promoting their greater access to productive resources and representation at national and local levels are evident. Likewise, the country attaches priority to addressing the needs and challenges of the various vulnerable segments of its population. Bangladeshs lead role in the UN in promoting the rights and well-being of persons affected by autism and other neuro-developmental disabilities emanate from the efforts to build an inclusive society.
Bangladesh recently settled the maritime and the land boundary demarcation and related issues with its neighbours, India and Myanmar. At the stroke of midnight of 31 July 2015, Bangladesh exchanged 162 enclaves whereby more than 50,000 stateless enclave residents have got their much cherished citizenship. This has brought to a peaceful end to the lingering humanitarian situation of the enclave residents. By so doing jointly with India, Bangladesh has set a unique precedent for the rest of the world. The Prime Minister said UN peacekeeping and peace building have emerged as its flagship activities and Bangladesh is proud to be associated with the endeavors of UN peacekeeping and peace building activities as a leading troop contributor. The valiant peacekeepers of Bangladesh have made their mark in 54 peacekeeping missions in 40 countries so far. Bangladesh has the distinction of having the highest number of female police in UN peacekeeping missions. The contribution to UN peace operations has made the country a reliable partner in UNs peace initiatives.
As we have already mentioned earlier that Bangladesh has become a successful story of reducing poverty considerably. However, in spite of that Bangladesh poverty and unemployment are pushing our country into the swamp of illiteracy. Because of poverty, the poor cannot afford to send their children to schools. And due to unemployment many people think, What is the benefit of that education that cannot provide any respectable livelihood.
Bangladesh economy experienced so far modest improvements in its broad economic indicators in fiscal year (FY) 2015-16. During this time, the country welcomed its promotion from a Low Income Country (LIC) to a Lower Middle Income Country (LMIC). External and internal balances appear on a steady course, providing the grounds for higher growth. Despite the global economic slowdown, Bangladesh, continued to exhibit strong macroeconomic performance and development progress. At present Bangladesh is widely recognized today as a role model for the developing world and has experienced one of the fastest poverty reduction rates in the world with a modest resource base.
For accelerating the process of good governance in Bangladesh, apart from governments yearly measures there should be a balance between all the institutions of the country. All institutions must work within the boundary of their limit. It will ensure the proper functioning of the governmental machinery.
The writer is Chairman, Department of Political Science and Director, South Asian Study Circle, Jagannath University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
