The demand for passports has increased substantially in Bangladesh in the past decade. The number of Bangladeshis traveling abroad for work, study, and business has increased rapidly. The largest increase has been in contracted manpower exported to various parts of the Middle East and recently East Asia. The rise in demand for passports has not been matched with investment in infrastructure or capacity development of staff in the passport office. The resultant factor has been a steady decline in the quality and efficiency of the service rendered to the public. One of the many challenges to the Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP) has been the presence of brokers within its vicinity. This resulted in a parallel service delivery network, sometimes involving staff from the regional passport offices and law enforcement agencies (e.g. Special Branch). This intricate network symbolized the poor quality of service delivery as it included the formal procedural structure with the informal ad‐hoc routines of the brokers. The existence of the brokers severely inhibited the ability of the authorities to bring about any lasting reforms. This working paper is a means of stimulating domestic discourse on governance in Bangladesh. They bring to the public domain the insights and analyses of the new generation of researchers.
Author: Haque, Sanjan
Type: Working Paper
Year: 2008
