Amir Mohammad Sayem
Development is important on many fronts in Bangladesh. Of course, Bangladesh is progressing in economic, social and some other aspects. Even if development in some indicators including some economic indicators is smoothly occurring in recent years, it is not going on as is desired. Notably, the desired development can be the one that indicates the optimum development in economic, social, political and all other aspects that can facilitate maximum human development of all. Notably, ‘Sonar Bangla’ or ‘Golden Bangladesh’ is also rendered as the desired development benchmark of Bangladesh. Undeniably, there are many challenges including corruption and a lack of planned approach in diverse aspects, accountability in government, private and non-government activities, transparency and strong political will and commitment, and financial adequacy that put considerable barriers to the desired development of the country or making Bangladesh Sonar/Golden Bangla.
Of diverse reasons, accountability, which exists when an individual or department experiences consequences for their actions, is important for an organization or a society. But the lack of it is undoubtedly a crucial hindrance to the development of Bangladesh as desired or making it golden Bangladesh. It is, thus, not surprising to raise a question on whether the desired development is possible without securing accountability at different sectors and tiers. This is obviously not. While many subsequent problems to the development of the country including the misuse of power or corruption, administrative failure, poor political decisions, inadequacy in improving efficiency and developing, implementing and monitoring policies, and a lack of transparency at different tiers result from the lack of accountability to one’s actions, the presence of it reduces corruption or the misuse of power.
But it is important to say something about accountability. The term ‘accountability’ usually indicates an obligation to accept responsibility or answer to one’s actions. But there is a lack of universal understanding of it. However, accountability is more commonly and broadly defined as “the state of being accountable to one’s actions”. It can be viewed from several viewpoints including religious, metaphysical and secular. The religious view typically indicates that human beings are created by the creator and are liable to the creator and one another for their actions. The metaphysical view usually holds that human beings are accountable in relation to an abstract, transcendent reality or set of principles that guide how they live their lives, not literally to a divine person. Secular view mainly indicates that human beings are accountable to both other people and themselves.
Though there are differences regarding the accountability to whom, there is no doubt that human beings are accountable for their actions. Such views make it clear that human beings are accountable to the creator as well as the society, other people and themselves. Moreover, accountability is sometimes rendered as consisting of several components such as responsibility (which is usually a state of having a duty that binds to the course of one’s action), answerability (which is usually a state of being answerable for one’s actions), trustworthiness (which is usually a state of being worthy and reliable for one’s actions), and liability (which is usually a state of being legally bound or obliged for one’s actions). In this article, accountability of human activities to the state, society, or persons has been focused on. In this sense, one’s accountability has legal, moral, and/or mental dimensions.
Of course, it is not that there is no accountability for the actions of diverse groups or individuals in Bangladesh. Indeed, there are political accountability, business accountability, bureaucratic accountability, representational accountability, and fiscal and legal accountability. Alternatively saying, there is accountability in different government, private, non-government and other organizations at different tiers and many political leaders including many political leaders of the ruling party, government officials, employees of private and non-government organizations, businessmen and others are being made accountable for their different acts by different formal and informal ways such as departmental actions, organizational actions, court-based legal actions and other measures such social mechanisms. But the extent of the formal accountability, especially court-based, department-based, and organization-based accountability, is obviously not as is desired.
Alternatively saying, there is a significant lack of accountability among political parties, government organizations, private organizations and other organizations in Bangladesh, meaning that political leaders or elected representatives, government officials, businessmen, employees of private and non-government organizations and others are not accountable to their acts on many occasions, even if there are differences among organizations, departments or parties. Undeniably, many political leaders including many ruling party leaders are not answerable for many of their activities. Also, there are enormous activities in governmental organizations carried out by government officials that are not answerable. Of course, diverse acts of owners and employees of private organizations including adulteration of foods, usage of muscle power and other harmful acts are not accountable in the country. Moreover, many activities of other organizations including non-government organizations working in Bangladesh and their employees are not accountable as desired.
All these indicate that more needs to be done for securing accountability in Bangladesh so that desired development is possible. But there are wide-ranging political, organizational and other challenges to securing accountability at different tiers. Political barriers include an intention to save party men, political intervention on government actions driven for holding persons accountable, political influence over activities of other organizations, political indulgence of carrying out diverse sorts of corrupt practices and adversarial relations between major political parties at an unacceptable level. Some notable organizational barriers, especially government, private and other organizations-based, include inadequate departmental punishment policies or action steps, a lack of implementation and monitoring of diverse policies, weak monitoring mechanisms of regular and project-based activities, bureaucratic complexity, a lack of transparency, and the absence of an effective accountability system. Also, there are some other barriers to securing accountability such as low levels of awareness of rights among citizens and a lack of state-citizens engagement.
To develop the country as desired or make Bangladesh Sonar Bangla, organizations need to function as desired and parties and persons need to act with responsibility. But a vital question remains on whether organizations will function as desired and parties or persons will act with responsibility without securing accountability, which is an indispensable component of good governance and an important means for the desired development or making Bangladesh Sonar/Golden Bangla. This is definitely not, even though some organizations, political leaders, officials, businessmen, and other persons act as is desired and ensure accountability on their own. Therefore, more effective efforts are needed to secure accountability as desired at different tiers of the country. In this respect, political party-based mechanisms, organizational mechanisms including government, private and others, and other formal measures are very significant for formal or legal accountability. Of course, putting emphasis on the development of morality is also important for securing moral accountability.
Not less important is that putting emphasis on the importance of social accountability, which is an approach that relies on the establishment of accountability in society with civic engagement, is very important for securing accountability in Bangladesh. Of course, there is a range of civic platforms such as mass media and civil society organizations that need to increasingly play their roles and responsibilities to make sure that desired accountability is ensured at different tiers of the government, private and other organizations. Of course, civic platforms need deserving freedom for making constructive criticism against events/cases of unaccountability. Also, people’s peaceful protests against varied unscrupulous practices, especially which are not answerable, can increase accountability.
