Dec 6 – A government-commissioned white paper has concluded that the Awami League’s flagship Digital Bangladesh agenda functioned largely as “an architecture of political slogan” rather than a coherent national digital strategy.
According to the report, the widely promoted vision of technological modernisation and a digitally empowered citizenry operated as a fragile façade, weakened by systemic governance failures, corruption, irregularities and political capture.
The white paper—headed by economist M Niaz Asadullah—was recently submitted to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus but has not yet been made public, according to media reports.
The task force examined 52 ICT Division (ICTD) projects and analysed extensive datasets, including more than six lakh e-GP tenders and over 30,000 software-system log records. Its central finding is that political influence and weak governance consistently undermined the country’s digital transformation effort.
“Over time, that promise became overshadowed by mounting public concern over corruption, irregularities and systemic governance failures,” the report notes.
Despite rapid expansion of connectivity, training centres and infrastructure after 2009, the growth exposed a persistent mismatch between political ambition and institutional capacity. Strategic decisions were frequently shaped by partisan considerations rather than development priorities.
Of the 52 projects reviewed, at least 12 major initiatives and 65 components were found to have been named after political personalities or used directly for political branding. Site selections were also influenced by partisan interests, and the 2019 ICT Masterplan formally adopted the ruling party’s election manifesto as a policy reference.
Narratives of digital progress relied heavily on unverified or inflated statistics on exports, employment and cost savings—many amplified by donor-funded entities.
Flagship connectivity schemes such as Info-Sarker II and III emerged as “textbook cases of triple rent seeking”, the white paper says, with public investment creating long-term rent streams for a private duopoly. National Priority Project status was used to bypass legal procedures and secure lopsided revenue arrangements.
The report identifies major institutional failures in the Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority, whose mandate for innovation and industrial diversification became increasingly aligned with political spectacle and patronage. Parks and training centres were launched without credible assessments of demand, utility readiness or tenant capacity.
Structural vulnerabilities in procurement and financial management were widespread. The task force cites syndicates of vendors, consultants and public officials who manipulated tenders, inflated costs, duplicated services and diverted funds. Procurement anomalies across more than 40 hardware proposals exceeded Tk 1,000 crore, driven by repeated requests for unnecessary equipment and under-specified technical requirements. Some items were purchased at two to four times the global market price.
Connectivity projects deepened dependence on private monopolies, creating publicly funded networks run by private operators and fragmented donor systems, eroding state control over critical infrastructure.
The investigation also found that high-profile initiatives, including Aspire to Innovate (a2i), were built on promotional metrics rather than verifiable outcomes. Its reputation as an innovation lab leaned heavily on publications and projected efficiencies, while concrete performance data remained limited. A dual-governance structure gave UNDP-affiliated consultants disproportionate influence over procurement and programme design, limiting accountability.
Education programmes such as the Sheikh Russel Digital Lab (SRDL) and School of Future showed widespread non-functionality. Many labs lacked maintenance, equipment or connectivity, and politically influenced site selections were common. Independent assessments detected no measurable improvement in student learning outcomes.
Urban digital initiatives, including the Digital Sylhet City Project, collapsed under political patronage, procurement capture and administrative failures. Wi-Fi coverage reached less than five percent of intended beneficiaries, and no agency assumed operational responsibility.
Nine major projects exhibited breaches of fiduciary duty, misclassified procurement and weak data governance, according to the task force.
The white paper concludes that fulfilling the original promise of Digital Bangladesh will require restoring the integrity and independence of the institutions responsible for delivering the country’s digital future.
