At present, public administration has changed radi-cally. A noticeable change in public personnel mana-gement, bureaucratic, administrative and public administration sectors are developing another signi-ficant part of the world. Especially globalization is a reason behind these changes. Now policy problems have become complicated, vicious, and world-wide rather than simple to old public administration systems. The necessity for the current modern situ-ation personnel management has to change from old public administration to New Public Management (NPM). The current personnel management or bure-aucratic system has changed from the ancient Mughal period, British period, and Pakistan period personnel management (Robinson, 2015).

The administration has been historically current in public administration functioning; however, it took an awful time to evolve as a distinct approach in public area intellectual discourses. Only over a few decades academicians and researchers are paying serious attention to it and discussing it within a para-digmatic scheme. Governments worldwide are also changing their regular strategy and trying to observe public management strategy according to their capa-bility and interest to accomplish their function. Management frequently performs the most indis-pensable position in each system. Referring to Waldo, it has been referred to earlier that public administration inherently has a management dimen-sion (Waldo, 1984). Amidst an inseparable relation-ship, there are also some practical variations between administration and management. But there is no simple way to draw any definite distinction between public administration and public management based on the difference between administration and admi-nistration because transcending the practical sides of administration and public management has advanced as a new approach to public administration (Pollitt, 1994). 

Public administration gives the establishment to and upgrades development for new methodologies like New Public Management (NPM), New Public admi-nistration, new public values, and so forth. Universal appropriateness of these methodologies was not found due to the impact of a few unexpected vari-ables like government, society, economy, and the current situation (Jay and Russel, 1999).

Background of Bangladesh personal management

Bangladesh came through a crucial period in 1757 when the British East India Company has dominated Bangladesh (Bengal) after the Palash war. British East India Company enforces the law to maintain their business and dominate the people of the Indian sub-Continent. These rules impact society, economy, politics, administration, culture, bureaucracy, and so on. One of the most significant rules of East India Company is "The Aitchison Commission (Public Service Commission)" (1886-87); its a civil service reform act which mentioned the old name of civil service has been changed from Covenanted Civil Service (CCS) to Indian Civil Service (ICS) and also mentioned that age limit for Indian civil service candidates from 19 to 23 years. Another "The Isling-ton Commission (1912-1915, 1917)" is recommend-ded; the 75% ICS members to be recruited in England and 25% to be recruited through in India. Ultimately it is rejected by the Indian peoples because of the 1st World War. For this reason; the British East India Company had not implemented it (Manjunath, 2014). 

The Montagu-Chelmsford Re-port (1918) act recommended; the 35% is recruit-ted in India, and per year it should be increased by 1.5%. In 1924, the British East India Company created "The Lee Commission" act in which output; Provincial Civil Service is filled 20% of vacancies by promotion (Chandavakar, 1994; Ahmed, 1968). In the Pakistan period, the Civil Service of Pakistan was divided into two sections. The first one is the Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP) which known as Super Elite Civil Service because the members of the Super Elite have wielded considerable influence over the number of people in power at the most important position at the central, provincial and local level and the second one is East Pakistan Civil Service (EPCS); it was dominated by the Pakistan Civil Service because of West Pakistans thought that East Pakistan is a colonial place of them. In Pakistan Civil services, there was 26 cadres position, and 14 cadres were on their hand. First-class and second-class cadres are gazette; others are non-gazette. Pakistan Public Ser-vices were divided into three parts to implementing the administrative affairs, for instance, Pakistan Civil Service, Central Superior Service, and Pakistan Police Service. The Secretariat was also the nerve Centre of government activities in Pakistan like it was taken over by British India. How many con-cerned departments were attached to different minis-tries? In East Pakistan were 4 divisions and 19 Districts. In West Pakistan were 12 divisions and 53 districts. The head of Division level civil servant was Divisional Commissioner, and District level civil servant was Deputy Commissioner (DC) (Ahmed, 1968). So, Bangladesh Public administration started its journey from the British colonial administration in India, went through military dictated authoritarian Pakistani regime, and bears historys legacy (Sarker, 2004).

Management and public administration relationships are very a whole lot integrative and purposeful. It may additionally be viewed from two perspectives, functional and theoretical. The useful nexus of public administration with the administration is inhe-rently tied up with the beginning and historic public administration improvement. From an academic standpoint is an affair evident in the theoretical cons-tructs and paradigms of public administration. According to Henry Nicholas,

a) Paradigm1: The Politics Administration Dic-hotomy, 1900-1926;

b) Paradigm2: The Principle of Administration, 1927-1937;

c) Paradigm3: Public Administration as Political Science, 1950-1970;

d) Paradigm4: Public Administration as Political Science, 1956-1970;

e) The Emerging Paradigm5: Public Adminis-tration as Public Administration, 1970-?

f) Institutionalizing Paradigm 6: Toward curri-cular Autonomy.

Above is the paradigm framework that mentions that public administration is theoretically developed from old public administration to new public management (Nicholas, 1975). Aiming to overcome the barriers of usual administration strategy, many countless techniques emerge in the academic subject of public administration; the pioneering ones are the New Public Administration (NPA) and new public mana-gement. It was initiated through Dwight Waldo, the guru of contemporary public administration in and later on fostered by Frederickson and others. New Public Administration emphasizes strengthening social equality and democratic management prac-tices. It tries to place public administration on a normative premise and holds that the purpose of a public agency is the discount of economic, social, and psychic suffering and the enhancement of exis-ting opportunities for these internal and outside the organization. On the other hand, New Public Mana-gement (NPM) is also a reaction to the perceived weak spot of public administrations typical bureaucratic paradigm. But in contrast to NPA, it has been in a position to the interest of students in this field as nicely the practitioners and reformers of public administration of the world (Gruening, 2014).

Table 1: Traditional Public Administration to New Public Management.

Bangladesh became an independent state in 1971 through many bloody wars. Personnel management in Bangladesh is based on the British personnel sys-tem and Pakistans personnel system. After indepen-dence Bangladesh government has taken some changing decisions about personnel management in Bangladesh. After independence, radical changes took place in the administrative sector of Bangla-desh. According to Article 136 of Bangladesh Con-stitutions, the government can take action on any change or reorganization if necessary. In Bangladesh Constitution, part II alludes that the constitutions provide indispensable rules of state policies. Also, the constitutions articles 15 highlight the objective of state and objective of public administration as follows: "It shall be a fundamental responsibility of the state to attain through planned economic growth, a constant increase of productive forces and a steady improvement in the material and cultural standard of living of the people, to secure to its citizens various rights. For instance, the provision of necessities of life, including food, shelter, clothing, education, and medical care; the right to work, that is the right to guaranteed employment at a reasonable  wage having regard to the quantity and quality of the work; the right to reasonable rest, recreation and lei-sure; the right to social security, that is to say, public assistance in cases of  undeserved want arising from unemployment, illness or disablement, or suffered by widows or orphans or in old age or other such cases" (Bangladesh Constitution, 2018). Above the consti-tutional article speak out the progress objective of public management and public administration that included economic progress, human resource growth likes productive force, materials, and cultural pro-gress. 

After Achieving independence from Pakistan, the main aim of the new government was to move the existing Pakistani provincial administration into Bangladesh public administration and development institutions to create a government accountable to the people at large (Younus and Iqbal, 2000). To under-stand the changes in public civil service after the establishment of Bangladesh in 1971, it can be in-cluded in six periods based on several political leaders regimes (Table 2) (Sarker, 2004).

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1971-75)

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the first democratic renowned President of Bangladesh. He came through with humorous popularity, though it did not last long. The regime became a personalized rule of Mujib, who supplemented and transcended all kinds of political institutions. He had taken some change-able decisions about personnel management, per-sonnel administration, and public administration. In his period, he built some noticeable reform com-mittees such as - a) Civil Administration Restoration Committee 1971 (CARC):  Due to having no poli-tical complexities, these committee suggestions were implemented. Based on the recommendations of this commission, the government established 20 Minis-tries, Supreme Court, High Court, Public Service Commission, Election Commission and Auditor General Office, and so on; b) Administration and Service Restoration Committee (ASRC) 1972: it was not implemented due to political and bureaucratic difficulties; 

Table 2: Reforms/changes in Public Civil Service after the establishment of Bangladesh in 1971.

c) National Pay Commission 1972 (NPC): On July 21, 1972, The National Pay Commission was formed with 10 members under the chairmanship of former CSP Abdur Rob. This commission is generally known as the First National Pay Commission. According to this commission, the existing 2208 pay scales were abolished and were included through 10 new scales. The maximum salary for the new 10 scales is fixed at 2000 per month and the minimum at 230 per month also added that National Health Insurance is provided for government officials (Sheikh and Rahman, 2019).

Table 3: National Pay Scales, 1973.

Ziaur Rahman Regime (1977-1981)

In this period, The Zia government mainly reorga-nized the Secretariat, mentioned a classless Unified Civil Service, and constituted the Senior Civil Services Pool (SSP) in 1977. The SSP aimed to create the Secretariat a representative institution with the apex cadres talented, efficient and experienced officers of Bangladesh Civil Service.

H. M. Ershad Regime (1982-1990)

During the Ershad regime, civil service examinations had been being held at least once in each calendar year. All contributors of the BCS cadres, which involved these from the armed forces, have been eligible, difficult to the size of provider criteria. However, the widespread of the take a look at eroded and attracted average youths. Status and merit started out fading from the civil service. Political conne-ctions, affinity with the ruling category, and close-ness to the chief government rather than benefit and competency seemed like the dominant criteria of merchandising of civil servants at some point of the Ershad regime.

Khaleda Zia Regime (1991- 1996)

Since December 6, 1990, Bangladesh had been mak-ing outstanding efforts to transform the author-itarian, presidential machine of government into a West minster model of parliamentary democracy (UNDP, 1993). General elections were held in Feb-ruary 1991. Begum Khaleda Zia, the spouse of former President General Zia, was once elected Prime Minister. A new mechanism of authority used to be adopted through the twelfth Amendment to the constitution, which made the Prime Minister Head of government, while the President used to be given a titular function as the head of the nation (Talib & Mostafa, 2000). The Khaleda regime abolished the Upazilla and reverted to the previous Thana (police station) council. The elected chairpersons of the Upazilla Parishad (sub-district council) had been changed by way of government officials. The direct election of mayors and commissioners of four city corporations was held for the first time in Bangla-desh. Later, the Khaleda authorities delivered two tiers of neighborhood government, a Union Paris had at the union level and Zilla Parishad (district council) at the district stage. The BNPs decentralization scheme accepted for little illustration only at the lowest tier retained bureaucratic management over local affairs and disdained both horizontal and vertical integration with different actors in local governance (Lipa, 2020; Mollah, 2011).

Sheikh Hasina Regime (1996-2001)

On June 23, 1996, after the end of the term of the BNP government, parliamentary elections were held. The Awami League (AL) formed a government under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina. Sheikh Hasina officially announced the need to achieve national accord and took the initiative to form a common party government (ATCP). However, like its predecessors, Hasinas government continued to conduct bureaucratic operations to further its guerrilla goals. The bureaucracy has become more politicized. Local administration plays an important role in one of the two main political parties in national and local elections (Zafarullah, 1996). The overt support of military officials fighting against a democratically elected government before the 1996 general election indicates a very worrying trend. Several officials who were active in the anti-BSP movement received favorable positions from the military regime (Rahaman, 2002). Concerning regu-latory change, the Hasina government set up the Public Administration Reform Commission (PARC) which made recommendations to end administrative noise and deferral in dynamic, the examination of the class framework in the common administrations that prevents execution, improvement of traffic frame-works, and expressway watch, standard and nature of administrations in government associations, etc. (Islam, 2005). Nonetheless, the PARCs proposals, which were not particular from the ARCs recom-menddations, like-wise couldnt be actualized be-cause of administrative obstruction and politics (Mollah, 2011).

Fakhruddin Ahmed (2007)

In April 2007, Ahmeds government tried to reform the party and, with the help of the military, began arresting corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, and people in the business. Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, along with her two sons, Tariq Rahman and Arafat Rahman Koko, were arrested on corruption charges. As of July 2007, about 200,000 people and 15 poli-tical leaders have been arrested. The governments main task is to hold free, fair, and reliable national elections to form the next political government. Still, the primary mission is to root out corruption in the countrys political and other sectors before free and fair elections (Samad, 2008). Some of the good initiatives of the interim government are widely recognized. Other measures include implementing local government reform initiatives, police reform, and civil service reform to explore constraints to economic growth and the efficient and adequate supply of public goods.  Finally, on December 29, 2008, the Provisional Government held free, fair, and reliable national elections, which were won by a great alliance led by an over-whelming majority of the military forces (Mollah, 2011). Former Addi-tional Secretary of the National Housing Agency Safiul Alam opines, the first proposal for public administration reform was tabled in 1956. From then until the Public Administration Reform Commission formed in 1997 under the leadership of ATM Sham-sul Haque, most of the proposals were not imple-mented. He said administrative reforms had been carried out in different countries of the world in the public interest. The governing system is now in place in the districts and cities of Pakistan. Nazim is the administrative head in these places and his co-ordinates 21 departments. Due to the reforms, people can pay customs clearance and taxes online at home on their initiative. You can open Bill of Lading and LC online yourself. If this countrys bureaucracy comes from Pakistan, if they succeed in reform, then why not in Bangladesh.

Problems and Challenges

It was expected that Mujibs Awami League govern-ment would be successful in bringing changes in the so-called colonial bureaucratic system.   But, due to political short-sightedness, the bureaucracy of Bangladesh could not move in the right direction; Rather than starting from the wrong position, the institutional and professional appearance of the bureaucracy has not developed as CSP-BCS con-flicts, factionalism, corruption, batch-to-bat quarrels, non-consistent working methods, and kinship and intimacy have prevailed.

The Bangladeshi ruling class, terrified of the Pakistani bureaucracy, has not ensured job security for bureaucrats since independence. The constitution also does not provide any security for their jobs. But the bureaucracy of Bangladesh grew up in that old British structure. The journey of the bureaucracy of this country started with the policy framework of British rule. As in the case of the British bureau-cracy, accountability was limited to the superiors, as was the case with Bangladesh. Accountability to the people of the state has not been ensured. The bureau-crats do not have good relations with the other two pillars of the state, the law, and the judiciary. Rather there is a kind of advantage-centered relationship with the law department. The freedom fighters-non-freedom fighters conflict, CSP, EPCS, and BCS conflicts, and mutual animosity started after indepen-dence. Lack of job security has made officials com-placent and self-centered. Besides, the interest in playing an entrepreneurial role and creative work stopped and as a result, the job became salary and chaircentric. On the other hand, the elite attitude of CSP officers became super-elite after 75. In the past, they have managed to bring the administration to a point where politicians and retired military generals find their needs inevitable. They used to mock BCS and call it Bangladesh Cattle Service. Since the CSPs who were supposed to develop the civil service of this country did not take the responsibility of building the bureaucracy, no character of the bureau-cracy of this country stood. Ershad came to power and introduced the Upazila system by announcing to take the administration to the peoples doorsteps. In 1983, a large batch of 650 people was recruited to conduct the Upazila Courts activities only through MCQ (tick mark test) without a recruitment test. They did not have the necessary training. For these reasons, the condition of the appointment was that they would retire as Upazila Magistrates. But by withdrawing this condition in political lobbying, they were added to the continuity of civil adminis-tration. Simultaneously, due to a large number of recruitments in three consecutive batches, the relatively weak ones also got the opportunity to enter the civil service. They have not taken any career development course, including basic training, law, and administration. Some have since taken up short-term training. At that time, election officers and cantonment executive officers were also assimilated into the civil administration. Due to these various irregularities, there has been a severe stag-nation in promotions and promotions for a long time. The BCS gradually became inefficient and inefficient due to the inferiority of the CSPs in the civil adminis-tration and the subsequent weak recruitment. At that time, politicians became dependent on CSP. The juniors in the civil administration did not receive the necessary education and guidance from the officials. The 65th batch became known as Saladins batch. It is from this batch that different batch came to be known as different individuals batch. This identity is mainly due to inter-batch quarrels and insufficient efforts to gain political proximity. In 1991, the BNP came to power and appointed a Member of Parlia-ment as the district minister. The district ministers started monitoring the overall work of the district development co-ordination and law and order com-mittee. But on paper, the deputy commissioner is the chairman of the committee. Without legitimacy, the district ministers presided over the meetings of the co-ordination committee and supervised the work. In this, the district minister or the party leaders suppor-ters also became important in the coordination committee meetings. This would have affected the party politics to a great extent. Deputy Commissi-oners and other officials were secondary in field administration. This trend continued during the sub-sequent Awami League and the last four-party coa-lition government. From 1947 to 1962, a total of 28 commissions were formed in Pakistan. These com-missions recommend administrative reform, restruc-turing, systematic development. In Bangladesh, 13 commissions have been formed during all the governments from 1971 to 1997, including military rule.

The ATM Shamsul Haque Commission, created in 1997, has submitted a complete and complete pro-posal. The commission proposed a total of 137 reforms containing the concept of New Public Management (NPM). Of these, 30 were in term, 70 were short-term, and 37 were long-term proposals. The important recommendations of the commission were transparent and accountable administration. Limit transfers of officers to the Ministry of Clusters by introducing a clusters system among like-minded ministries to enhance professionalism and efficiency. Replacing the existing Superior Service Pool (SSP) structure with Superior Management Pool (SMP) for promotion and posting based on seniority, quail-fications, and skills. It is recommended to give appointments and advancements in the cadre service based on merit and abolish the quota system. They are restructuring the local government system and re-evaluating government authorities. Reduce the excess of institutions and human resources and form an independent and robust anti-corruption com-mission. In the proposal, it has been proposed that the age limit for employment should be 60 years, full-time banking, development of police system; the introduction of one-stop service, integration of utility services should be continued on Friday-Saturday as well. The question remains, who will implement these recommendations when?

The authors would like to thanks Associate Professor, Dr. Mashiur Rahman, Assistant Professor, Krishna Kumar Saha, Major Mohammad Anisuzzaman,  and the Department of Public Administration of Cumilla University for inspiring, providing all the creative guidelines and support to make this article.

There is no conflict of interest between the authors.