The Local Government Reform Commission officially handed over its final report to Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the State Guest House Jamuna on Sunday (20 April, 2025).
Receiving the report, the Chief Adviser expressed his strong commitment to transparency and public engagement with the reform process.
“We will make the full report public so that citizens, experts, and stakeholders can access and understand the reforms that are being proposed,” Professor Yunus said. “In fact, I believe these reforms should be studied in schools to build civic awareness from a young age.”
Professor Yunus added, “Let us not delay. These reforms must move from paper to practice as soon as possible.”
The Local Government Reform Commission, headed by Professor Tofail Ahmed, submitted the report after months of consultation, research, and fieldwork.
“We are recommending that the Consensus Commission review and reflect on the report,” said Professor Ahmed. “In the first section, we focused on structural reforms, and in the latter part, we offer what we call ‘a single idea to implement a thousand others’ — a framework that ensures practical and scalable change.”
He added that the goal is to make local governments smarter and more efficient in delivering public services. “We’ve dedicated an entire chapter to the role of resource management and suggested that the Local Government Division take on a supervisory role to ensure accountability,” said Professor Ahmed .
The commission’s report also identifies critical challenges facing urban local bodies, particularly the Dhaka City Corporation.
“Departmental inefficiencies and rampant bribery remain persistent issues,” Professor Ahmed said. “From large infrastructure projects to everyday services, corruption flows through multiple layers — project-level, service-level, and inter-departmental. Unless we address these, effective governance will remain a dream.”
This meeting was also attended by members of the Local Government Reform Commission, including Professor Dr Tofail Ahmed, Professor Dr Ferdous Arfina Osman, Abdur Rahman, Dr Mahfuz Kabir, Mahshuda Khatun Shefali, Professor Dr Mohammad Tarikul Islam, Elira Dewan, Professor Dr Kazi Maruful Islam, Mr. A.K.M. Tarikul Alam, Helena Parveen, and Meshah Uddin Khan.
