NIS or Local Solutions in Land Administration to Prevent Corruption in Bangladesh: Towards a Sustainable Policy Framework


 Corruption in land administration is one of the challenging issues to implement National Integrity Strategy. Citizens who visited the land office has someway bitter experiences in many ways. Drawing these issues, this research attempted to investigate the challenges of NIS in Land administration and possible way out. Based on in-depth interviews with citizens and public officials and document analysis found that NIS helped to modernize the land administration in recent years. The government with the help of the young officials at the land administration have taken several measures to resolve the minor crisis. However, the improvement in service delivery is someway quite nominal compared to the volume of corruption land administration. This likely because of the nature of the societal pattern of the country. In practice, there are still local and administrative politics has significant influence. Therefore, despite having good initiatives and appropriate measures, officials in land administration failed to implement NIS properly. Also, several other problems like lack of skilled manpower and technical support, the tendency of violating rules and others stated in the paper about corruption are making NIS implementation challenges. However, the study found that an alternative approach like ‘local solutions for the local problems might have more success compared to NIS approach. Therefore, the paper argued that dynamic sustainable and corruption-free land administration requires a combined approach of both local solutions, innovation and NIS implementation in Bangladesh.


Introduction
Literature Review Williamson, Enemark, Wallace, & Rajabifard (2010) opine that all countries are unique and have their own needs. They propose some principles for land administration to land management paradigm, people and institutions, rights, restrictions and responsibilities, land administration for sustainable are dynamic, processes, technology, spatial data infrastructure, and measure for the success of land administration that is applies to all countries. Ali (1981) also provided a detailed analysis of land administration and recommended modernize administration for good governance in Bangladesh. In an alternate research Huque (2011) found that eld level is in uenced by a few extra authoritative, political, and social variables like procedural deferrals, the assortment of errands, choice example and conduct, government o cial chairman communication, double faithfulness of authorities, lacking o ces for satisfying family commitments, and connection to major urban habitats for wellbeing and instructive administrations. Ahsan and Pandey (2013) argued that coordination among various o ces in eld organization holds key to the achievement of the legislature. Their nding recommends that casual correspondence in the eld organization among various o ces has been seen to be one of the noticeable components of guaranteeing coordination. Hassan (2015) also argued that corruption-free land administration requires a strategic and tactical systems-level framework and effective public service delivery model to promote good governance. Similarly, Choudhury, Ridwan, Awal and Hosain (2011) offered a new modelling technique that represents data for the current land management system through a user-friendly and digitized map-based system. They showed that the current problems that are haunting the country because of the presence of a poor and opaque land management system. However, a web-based land management system will be able to create transparency and e ciency to the current land management system that allows the wonderful visual presentation of maps and easy searching facility. They proposed to replace paper-based current data and maps of land administration with digital versions so that searching and retrieving land data become easier. These researches on land administration suggest that the importance of land administration is pivotal. It also suggests that corruption and misappropriation of power in land administration is a critical issue. These researches do not emphasis on land administration as a case or narrow down the scope of research in this context separately. Therefore, in this research, drawing land administration as a case we are aiming to investigate possible solutions.

Research Methodology
This research is based on qualitative data collection using in-depth interviews and o cial documents. In-depth interviewing is a method that has been widely used in social science (Berry, 2002). It can provide a vivid picture of a situation and allow signi cant insights to be revealed (Creswell, 2012). The nature of the study required one-to-one verbal interactions with interviewees to clarify questions on many NIS related issues. Thus, for this research, 75 in-depth interviews were conducted with interviewees representing key have direct interaction the land-related issues and expertise with the land sector. There are many techniques used in qualitative research, but purposive and quota sampling is most widely used in social science (Bryman & Bell, 2015). The researcher prepared different categories based on the nature of the research and allocated a target number of participants to each one (Robinson, 2014).
The study categorised in-depth interviewee targets into signi cant groups like present government o cials (Assistant Commissioner of Land) at eight districts in Bangladesh, academics, researcher's civil society members and nally service recipients. However, due to COVID-19 outbreak, these in-depth interviews were conducted over phone or e-mail communication. The people interviewed for this research were rst sent an e-mail by the researching asking whether he or she was interested to participate in the research. Then they were communicated through e-mail or phone to collect data. These interview over the phone were lasted 10 to 20 minutes depending on their answers.
The interviews of the service recipient were carried to understand the dynamics of land administration corruption and improvement of service. Therefore, half of the interviews were conducted choosing service recipient as an important element for this research. These interviews were conducted two phases; the rst phase was in January to March (before the pandemic started) visiting various locations in Bangladesh. The second phase was conducted during May to June over the phone. Citizens were chosen through Facebook post based on their response over the research issue. In addition to in-depth interviews, a range of o cial documents--mostly in the form of reports, policy documents, contract extracts, and newspaper articles were reviewed for this research. Social media sources such as Facebook (the most popular social media platform in Bangladesh) also provided much information regarding cases of NIS and land corruption. We analyzed all the data through coding and data triangulation and try to develop a web of meaning.

NIS or Local Solutions in Land Administration
This paper has found both constructive development of NIS implementation and various challenges to implementing the strategy. At the same time, the paper has found some local initiatives that foster land administration in rural areas. All the ndings are discussed below;

Constructive Outcome of the NIS in Land Administration
Since NIS implemetation in the land administration there are some positive change occurred to upheld the image of the government. The land administration promoted several activities to foster citizen-centric services. The most prominat ativities is the Digitalization, Automation and Online Banking system. The government introduced a digitalized version of namjari as e-namjari. People can apply for their duplicate namjari online and after the process is completed, they will receive a message to collect their paper from the respective land o ce. Besides, the national database of land got digitalized and looking up for information got more hassle-free for both government and citizens. As a result of such initiatives, many land-related problems can be solved within a short time. This is also potential to reduce con ict between two parties claiming ownership of land. As a recognition of the successful implementation of enamjari, Bangladesh received the 'United Nations Public Service Award 2020'. Simultaneously, land o ces are getting automated with computer software. Additionally, the o cials also created Facebook pages and groups for a faster and more transparent way of service delivery. Therefore, the citizen can easily seek for the guidance they need from the land o ce and can also publicly expose any corrupt staff. In many land o ces, the AC Land himself/herself monitor and operate the Facebook Page to get a wider view of his/her o ce. This indeed eases the payment procedure, helps to track the transactions and minimizes fabricated charges.
NIS also help to establish Citizen's Charter, honesty box and complaint box to get e cient service and feedback from citizens. It is observed that people often have to pay an excessive amount of fees because of not knowing the actual fee for the service they are taking. As a result, some staffs and brokers take advantage of it. Now o ces have billboards or charts about the fees for their services. Therefore, people can escape from the trap of the brokers and corrupt o cials. As one citizen mentioned, Before, when I used to come to the land o ce, I did not know the fee for any services. As a result, the o cials took extra money from us according to their demand. Now we know what services require how much following the Citizen's Charter and can bargain with the o cials (personal communication, 7 March 2020).
The NIS is also trying to bring public integrity through widening the concept, awareness campaign and integrity practice. It is also widely argued that to promote integrity there is a need for changing behaviour. As one of the interviewees mentioned that, 'you can't change the system unless you change your behaviour' (personal communication, 2 March 2020). Therefore, the NIS is also working on behavioural change of public through many activities. As land o ce deals with several activities and people come to the o ce with a negative mindset, many AC Land now promoting different mechanism to practice integrity. One such initiative is 'honesty box'. Many land o ces with direct monitoring by the AC Land set up honesty box to promote public integrity. In honesty box, people take purchase various documents from the o ce, where there is no seller at the service point. Customers purchase stamps and other documents and put the right amount of money in the honesty box. Similarly, the complaint box is a popular choice of the administrative o ce where people can drop their complaint or suggestion while keeping their identity anonymous. Most of the land o ce now has complained box, which is monitored by Assistant Commissioner (Land), commonly known as 'AC Land, to get a view of citizens regarding land-related services.
AC Land from different districts, organised various awareness-building campaigns for citizens to aware of the transparency and accountability practice of their o ce. As a process, the Zonal O ce organizes regular meetings and public seminars focusing on the activities and to do's of the land o ce. The main focus here is to increase morality and e ciency of staffs and make people know about their functions. They also organise motivational campaign to motivate citizens to follow the rules and to keep their papers up to date. Land o ces often distribute lea ets, banner festoon etc. about their activities, people's rights, needs of updating papers etc.

Why is NIS Implementation in Land Administration Often Blur?
Despite some positive effects of NIS, considering the volume of corruption in land administration, is still lacking far behind to make a dynamic administration.
There are several reasons for such claim. For exammple; political pressure and syndicate at land administration in Bangladesh is common scenario. Land administration works under signi cant political pressure which came from different manners. Sometimes political leaders, brokers, some corrupt o cials and charge people create a syndicate for simple services. These syndicates maintain a strong network with local politicians, it is di cult for the land o ce to tackle them. However, in uential people in land administration are involved in the land-related business, owner of a sandcastle, brick eld, char. In most cases they build these properties on an illegal land or without consent of the government, not maintaining all the valid papers or grabbing other people's property. Therefore they use their patron-client network to resolve their problem through linkage and money. During an interview with an AC Land, mentioned that; I can give you several examples of political pressure. One of my colleague who was making signi cant steps against a powerful politician involving illegal sandcastle owner later transferred from his place. Even, when I was taking some actions against illegal structure in government property, got a life threat through an anonymous phone call. These issues are very common in our working procedure(personal communication, June 14, 2020). Also, local politicians maintain 'soft relation' with the public o cals. They regularly interact with them and send them gifts and other bene ts. Often they try to build-up social relationship inviting the o cials in family gatherings. These sort of practices create a soft corner for the o cials to those people. Therefore, in many cases, public o cials remain silent when any recommendation comes from those people. This soft pressure, is a common practice in the local land o ce. While politicians failed to build a soft relationship with the public servants they are keen to use hard skills like creating threat, fear, transfer, etc. The o cials thus often think that it's a win-win situation for both parties as he can earn revenue for the government in an easier way. Another problem is some government lands are occupied by in uential people, but the o cials could not allocate to eligible people due to the time limitations. On the other hand, they are pressurized from the government to increase revenue.
The syndicate also manipulate ordinary service recipient by misleading and false information. According to one interviewee; This is the rst time I went to the land o ce. I never thought that I will saw so many people in a small tiny o ce stick together with one another. I was not sure where to go. First, I went to a person who was not interested to talk with me at all. Then I went to another and then another. Suddenly, one person came towards me asking do I need any help? I was like excited to have someone who willing to help me. Then he took me to the same o cials who didn't talk to me at all. I got my service within a few hours. But I had to cost an extra 2000 TK (personal communication, February 20, 2020).
These are the scenario still exits in many land o ces. People who are coming for the rst time in the land o ce, get strained frequently in the following manners. Similarly, in the land o ce, often brokers from a syndicate create pressure who allegedly is involved in a political network. As a result, sometimes it becomes di cult to stop the broker's activity in the land o ce.
Second major problem of NIS implemetaton is the the awarness of the service receipant. People often don't raise voice about corruption and are afraid of using a complaint box. Therefore, people coming to the land o ce has pre-set tendency of violating rules and regulations. Most of the service recipients do not read the citizen charter. They are even reluctant to follow the o cial rules. They are interested in getting the service as soon as they come to the o ce immediately. During the in-depth interview, one AC Land stated that; Most of the service recipients are not interested to take information from citizen charter or online/social media. They start visiting the o ce before the speci ed provided time and fell in trouble with corrupt o cials and broker syndicate (personal communication, June 16, 2020).
Though the service recipients are explained how to apply for the service in the land o ce they are reluctant to submit the required documents as they have a natural tendency of violating rules. They rather think that o cials are providing wrong information. Instead, they prefer to go to a broker.
Their preset mindset also keep them away from automation and digitalisation. The people in the eld level come to the land o ces for service are either farmers/uneducated and do not know about online/automation. Therefore, they are afraid of taking the service. So, they can not take the bene ts of automation and are not be able to do their task by themselves. As a result, they seek the help of computer shops or Union Digital Centre (UDC) to receive the service of the land o ce. The computer operator or UDC service providers are repeatedly making mistakes due to lack of land-related training. As a result, these people failed to get services on time. One AC Land who was interviewed for this research mentioned that; Actual service recipients of the land o ce are not receiving the advantage of digitalization/automation. They are afraid of online services and currently considering online services and automation as harassment (personal communication, June 14, 2020).
Lack of awarness is also driven by some activities for show off. Citizens are happy to see complaint box, CCTV cameras is being set up by the o cials to improve the land o ce. However, in most cases, very few people complain or dare to complain in the complaint box. Usually, land o ce employees put people in a kind of fear that if they complain in the complaint box, it will cause damage to their service. As one of the service recipients who was interviewed for this research mentioned the entire harassment process in detail; One day I went to the land o ce to pay my house tax. They demanded BDT 10,000 from me where the total amount of tax is around BDT 600. Then I asked them to give an o cial calculation breaking down of 10000 BDT, as per their demand. Then they tried to convince me in various ways without showing the calculation that they have other expenses to do, which is not in the rules laid down by the government. But as a conscious citizen, I knew that there is no extra cost in this regard, so I ask them to do my job with the amount of money set by the government and they are reluctant to do so. As a result, when I tried to make a complaint in the complaint box, they stopped me and threatened me saying, if they found any complaint against them in the box, I will have to suffer a lot with the issue. So, step down from complaining (personal communication, June 16, 2020).
Moreover, the complaint box is kept in an open place in the land o ce and it is visible to all. If anyone complains, the employees see it and put them under various threats. Also, the service recipient is not informed about what action is taken or not taken at all if a complaint is lodged in the complaint box. Yet the problems are the service recipients do not know what action is taken against the accused if there is any evidence of corruption in the complaint box or they do not even know whether the complaint box was opened or not. Therefore, most service recipients think that complaint boxes, CCTV cameras or other means of curbing corruption are just like lip service.
There are skilled manpower is hardly available for technical issues. Land related issues often complex and sometimes for new o cials, it is di cult to understand. Therefore, it often delays the service in simple issues. As a result, the workforce moves slowly than anticipated and people suffer because of it.
Moreover, land o ces have a shortage of staff. An AC Land reported that; We don't have enough staff to cope with the huge workload. Bene ciaries often try to take advantage of the lack of adequate manpower in many of our departments (personal communication, June 15, 2020).
Also, staffs mostly prefer the traditional way of service delivery. In addition, the government does not offer adequate technical workshops for its staffs rather opted for recruiting short term technical operators in land o ces, are often not enough educated.
These challenges indicate that NIS implementation often blurs and need massive efforts to make land administration more effective to ful l the actual goal of the strategy.

Local Solutions to the Local Problems: As an Alternative Approach
A local solution for the local problem or bottom-up approach is a concept developed from the new public management (NPM) suggests that the solution of a problem should be done from the local context. Andrews (2013) argued that isomorphism or best practices of problem solution might not be effective for every context. Therefore, different problems need different solutions. NPM drives towards more on nding problems at the root level. Evidence from different countries in preventing corruption in various sectors suggests that the bottom-up approach is likely to reduce corruption more than the top-down approach.
Similarly, this research has found that some innovations at the local land o ce have made a crucial contribution to preventing corruption. These efforts of local innovation often drive towards achieving goals not following code of conduct.
The local innovation process in land administration is largely driven in recent years notably by Sahadat Hossain at Paba in Rajshahi district. Working as an AC Land in Paba Mr. Hossain made some locally based solution at the land o ce. His initiatives like sitting outside the o ce at the yard, digitalization of records, direct public interaction have made a signi cant change in land o ces in Bangladesh. His model was further followed in many o ces and got positive results (Sakib, 2018). Likewise, the research also found some alternative approach to preventing corruption: Case Study 1: Relocating the Sitting Aggengement of AC Land The most and common problem in the land o ce is the frequent movement of middlemen and indomitability subordinate o cials. The syndicate combining middlemen and land o cials harass ordinary citizens. When the service recipients go to a sub-ordinate o cial for any service, the employees harass them in various ways and sometimes demand extra money in return of the work. Therefore, to protect the service recipients from such harassment, some AC Lands have set up their rooms at the entrance. In that case, any service recipient has to go across by the AC Land's room rst to receive services at the land o ce. During an in-depth interview, an AC Land stated that; I sit at the entrance of my o ce every morning with a table and chair. As soon as service recipients come, I listen to their problem myself and if there is any solution within my control, I solve it myself. Otherwise, I call the concerned o cial and ask him to solve their problems. When they leave after nishing their work, I ask the service recipients again if there is any problem in doing his job or if any o cer has demanded extra money. This has reduced the tendency of corruption among the o cials in my o ce. My o ce is now 100% corruption-free and I think this action has contributed the most (personal communication, June 24, 2020).
This approach also signi cantly reduced the in uence of middlemen in the land o ce. The solution again derived from Mr Sahadat Hossian is suited in the context of Bangladesh (Sakib,2020). The NIS does not provide such a solution to reduce corruption rather a mindset of the AC Land in this context is exclusive. The AC Land should come out from traditional bureaucratic ethos and rely on local innovation to solve their problems.

Case Study 2: Bhumi Pathshala
Bhumi Pathshala (Bengali word Bhumi means land and Patshala means school) is an innovative approach to make awareness and teaching land-related problems directly. It generally occurs in Gol Ghar or roundhouse in the land o ce two days a week. Some of the land o ces initiate schooling to aware citizens against corruption where AC Land himself teaches the citizens about the functions of the land o ce including mutation, registration, withdrawal of records and maps, the charges xed for different services etc. According to an AC Land who was interviewed in this research mentioned that; We held hearings two days a week for those who come to our o ce to receive services. Most of the time, the service recipients do not have a clear idea about the dag, khaitan or the continuity of how his land came to him. That's why I take the initiative to give them an idea. Before each hearing I spend 30-40 minutes in my o ce giving them various information about the service, informing them that no extra money is required to avail the services of the land o ce and answering their various questions. After this session, I periodically call them to the hearing. As a result, people have become much more aware than before and corruption in my o ce has been greatly reduced (personal communication, June 23, 2020).
The Bhumi Pathshala made signi cant response among citizens as they are being empowered. Such an alternative process of making awareness has become more effective than traditional workshops and seminars as most uneducated or villagers ain't interested in seminars or workshops. On the contrary, people while sitting with AC land in Bhumi Pathshala, discuss their problems and complain against corrupted individuals. In return, this reduces problems instantly and help to gather knowledge in practice.
Both the cases drawn in this paper indicate that rather than sticking with the textbook or traditional bureaucratic approach, the NIS implementation also needs local innovations because local innovations in the land o ces are making a way better contribution than NIS guidelines.

Discussion: Towards Sustainable Policy Framework
NIS is a combination of acts which directs public o cials to follow the code of conduct. It is also a process of achieving targets for o cials in a speci c time frame. As a result, public o cials are driven to achieve those targets to ful l their service goals. One of the senior o cials mentioned that being driven towards such goals has both positive and negative effects in public service delivery. The bene ts of such activities are that the o cials look forward to achieving their goals. Nowadays many young o cials work in the o ce (AC Land), they often work competitively to ful l their Annual Performance Appraisal (APA). Also, they are keen to achieve 'integrity award' by showing their activity, problem-solving capacity, achieving targets. Consequently, they frequently organize seminars, workshops, giving a lease of government properties as much as possible to gain government revenue. Also, government o cials are now using the 'buzz word' of Shuddhachar in Bengali meaning 'integrity' in the rural land o ces to promote good practices. The NIS also changes the mindset of the people of the land o ce. Because of target based activities, the o cials started work promptly compared to the previous time. A wonderful example is the releasing of mutation papers in 45 days. To some extent, these sorts of activities are making some contribution to promoting the NIS in the land sector. However, looking at the challenges of the NIS, the actual picture of NIS implementation is still far from reality.
Nevertheless, the study has found that the NIS has made some positive effects to the land o ces followed by suggesting the implementation of more NIS activities at the eld level. However, the alternative approach 'local solutions' that is making a more signi cant contribution to the local land o ce needs to take as a serious issue for land management. These approaches are more problem-oriented, based on local context and more importantly challenges powerful syndicate to make positive changes. Therefore, the paper argues that sustainable land management needs combined efforts to reduce corruption. Many AC Land took various self-driven initiatives in a combination of the NIS framework provides more success to prevent corruption and tackle potential challenges.
Perhaps the most signi cant example of such initiates was taken by former Upazila Nirbahi O cer (UNO) of Paba, a sub-district in Rajshahi district initiated Shahdat Hossain. Generally, in Bangladesh bureaucrats are often keep their distance from the citizens due to their colonial legacy. However, his problemcentric approach of local solutions set up an example in land administration (see Sakib, 2020). His approach can be characterized through the following chart which likely to be a successful approach of preventing corruption and bring a sustainable solution to land management.
Following chart illustrate that the NIS approach might bring some success in preventing corruption but remain dormant due to local problems like political in uences, awareness problems. The nature of the problems might vary in different locations. Therefore, the NIS approach of prescribing solutions of following code of conduct or o cial norms might not be effective and public o cials often compromise with the local problems. However, these prescribe format has driven through the local solutions of local problems there is a chance of sustainable solution of land administration. Some cases of local solutions of land management like Bhumi Pathshala shown in this paper capable of taking care of problems like awareness or political syndicate. Sustainable land management thus requires a combination of NIS approach (which will encourage o cials to follow code of conduct) and locally driven approach of corruption prevention to meet challenges.

Conclusion
The NIS is a vivid document for policy implementation in Bangladesh. It covers widespread guidelines for policy implementation. In this paper, choosing land administration as a case shows that, a combining effort with NIS and local innovation may provide a better result to combat corruption in Bangladesh. The ndings of the research along with policy suggestion convey that, the role of land administration in public service delivery is very critical and much of the government image depends on the success of land administration in Bangladesh. Although there are several critical problems linked with the success of land administration and NIS implementation, the government should take these policy suggestions seriously and make substantive changes in land administration at eld level. Therefore, the government should also take more steps to overcome the challenges. For example, issues like adequate, regular, timely and needbased training are required for more dynamic administration. Also, the government should take more punitive actions against corrupt o cials to set an example. Additionally, one-stop services, more allocation on government o ces, easy accessible old records might make a sustainable land administrative system along with suggested combined approach.