Regulatory Delivery Diagnostic Study – Bangladesh

Apex Consulting has just completed a Regulatory Delivery Diagnostic study through an in-depth diagnosis of selected “regulatory areas” governing key phases of the lifecycle of a business operating in Bangladesh.  For purposes of this assignment, we have studied regulatory delivery services related to business entry including:

1. The G2B interface between government and businesses such as licenses and inspections
2. The legal and regulatory bases underlying the selected regulatory areas
3. The institutions and mandates involved in the regulatory area and their G2G interactions
4. The ICT systems supporting the regulatory area, the data used for recordkeeping and decision making
5. Alternatives to regulation that might be used, and other aspects described below in order to gain a holistic view of how the selected regulatory area governs business activity.

This kind of methodical and comprehensive diagnostic of the regulatory delivery system using systematic data collection will provide critical information on the key components of the selected regulatory area – which will be an achievement in itself – but also for future reforms that would most benefit the business environment in Bangladesh.  Ultimately, these targeted reform activities should contribute to transparency and predictability of rules and requirements, a lower regulatory burden for low risk businesses, better achievement of each respective authority’s public policy objectives, and create a level playing field among businesses for improved competitiveness and productivity.

Description of services provided by Apex Consulting:

1. Processes and services:
   1. Prepared a comprehensive list of all processes and services provided by all government institutions to businesses (G2B) within each selected regulatory area.  Processes and services include: licenses, permits, approvals, inspections, reporting and any other interactions between government and businesses which are intended to result in a changed status for the businesses and/or represent a transaction between businesses and the government.
   2. Collected and aggregate detailed information on the identified processes/services in each selected regulatory area.
   3. Prepared descriptive text for the detailed information above, highlighting the main findings and important or unusual findings, quantifiable baselines as well as the effectiveness of regulatory delivery systems which are relevant for future reform activities.
2. Institutions:
   1. Prepared a comprehensive list of all institutions involved in each regulatory area.
   2. For each institution responsible for the processes/services in each selected regulatory area, conducted an institutional diagnostic including:
      1. Political economy of the institutions involved in the respective regulatory area
      2. Stakeholder identification and engagement strategy
      3. Organizational set-up of each institution
      4. Institutional mandates
      5. Staffing (including number of female staff)
      6. Budget
      7. Any overlap between mandates of the institutions or any confusion, redundancy or duplication of efforts
      8. Use of ICT
      9. Existing capacity to deliver their mandates and capacity gaps in delivering their mandate.
   3. Prepared descriptive text for the detailed information above, highlighting the main findings and important or unusual findings.  Prepare an analysis on how to make the institutional arrangements integrated and more efficient and effective. The analysis shall consider interoperability mechanisms and institutional restructuring and strengthening options.
3. Legal acts
   1. Prepared a comprehensive list of all legal acts relevant to the selected regulatory areas.
   2. Conducted a review of the legal acts to understand their coverage, entities subject to them, implementing agencies, overlaps in mandates or confusion, redundancy / duplication of efforts, complexities, capacity gaps of implementing agencies, etc.
   3. Conducted a review of international best practices regarding the legal acts governing each selected regulatory area.
   4. Prepared a benchmarking and gaps analysis – what do the Bangladesh legal acts cover, and how does it compare to international good practice in that particular legislative field.  Propose what specific changes and amendments would need to be made to improve the legislation in line with good practices.  Identify contradictions.
   5. Assessed if there are important policy objectives for each regulatory area that are not adequately covered by legal acts (gaps) but according to good international practice would need to be regulated.
4. ICT: Prepared an overall ICT diagnosis and assessment of the business regulation system in Bangladesh based on the analysis of the selected regulatory areas, including good practices identified through the exercise.
5. Held stakeholder validation workshops with the private sector to receive feedback on the findings from government sources, incorporate these in the diagnosis.
6. Consolidated and presented the findings above in a logical manner and prepared a final diagnostic and analytical report and, recommendations for reform.