International Journal of Public Administration, 33:451–462, 2010 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0190-0692 print / 1532-4265 online DOI: 10.1080/01900692.2010.483348 LPAD Equal Employment Opportunity in the Public Service: Theory and Practice in Bangladesh Bangladesh: Equal Opportunity Employment in Public Service Noore Alam Siddiquee Department of Politics and Public Policy, School of Social and Policy Studies, Faculty of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia Gofran Faroqi Regional Public Administration Training Centre (RPATC), New Eskaton, Dhaka, Bangladesh Although EEO has considerable appeal and is often part of a nation’s constitutional and legal framework the application of the principle appears to be far from satisfactory in most cases. Generally the gap between theory and practice of EEO is too wide—especially in developing countries where a range of factors influences the implementation of EEO. As a result, EEO has remained largely elusive in such contexts. This article seeks to contribute to the under- standing of EEO in a developing country — Bangladesh—from theoretical and practical terms. Based on mainly secondary sources of information it shows that despite constitutional provisions and the presence of various rules and regulations to this effect, there are a variety of ways in which EEO principle is compromised and violated in the public service. It further shows that in recent times the administration of EEO has been frustrated and undermined further given the increasing trends of politicization of the public service and the high incidence of corruption and patronage in its management. Keywords: equal employment opportunity, public service, the quota system, politicization, Bangladesh INTRODUCTION In modern times equal employment opportunity (EEO) has assumed a growing significance as a management principle in public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. It is consistent with democratic values and principles and widely used as a means for ensuring that anyone regardless of race, color, sex, disability, religion, and national origin has an equal chance for a job based on his/her qualifications. Apart from being a legal requirement and/or obligation it has come to be accepted as a strategy to attract and retain the best and brightest in the organization. Given that most nations in the past have gone through long struggles against discrimination based on race, color, sex, ethnicity, and religion, it is nothing surprising that EEO has subsequently captured the imaginations of policy makers and practitioners alike. At the core of such struggles was the desire to establish a fair, democratic, and just social and political order. It is against this backdrop that demands for creating and maintaining a work environment which is free from all sorts of discrimination have received growing support from various quarters. As elsewhere, in Bangladesh EEO has assumed a great significance. It enjoys strong support and is justified in view of socio-political and administrative imperatives, among others. The social and political impetus for EEO came from Bangladesh’s liberation struggle which was essentially driven by the desire for establishing an equitable and just society by dismantling the discriminatory and the hege- monic rule of Pakistani political and administrative elites (Jahan, 1972, 2000; Alam, 1995). The administrative imperative of EEO emanates from the fact that contrary to the expectation that Bangladesh would develop a dynamic and effective administrative system capable of steering socio-economic development, the coun- try’s public service has remained largely dysfunctional. Correspondence should be addressed to Noore Alam Siddiquee, Department of Politics and Public Policy, Flinders University, Bedford Park, Adelaide, South Australia, 5001, Australia. E-mail: Noore.Siddiquee@ flinders.edu.au