The Awami League’s flagship Digital Bangladesh vision functioned largely as “an architecture of political slogan” rather than a coherent national digital strategy, according to a government-commissioned white paper.
The much-publicised promise of technological modernisation, efficiency and a digitally empowered citizenry ultimately operated as a fragile digital façade, weakened by systemic governance failures, corruption, irregularities and political capture, it said.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel. The White Paper, headed by M Niaz Asadullah, was recently submitted to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus but has not yet been released publicly. The Daily Star has reviewed a copy of the document.
The task force reviewed 52 ICT Division (ICTD) projects and examined extensive datasets, including more than 6 lakh e-GP tenders and over 30,000 software-system log reco rds.
Its central assessment is that political influence and governance failures consistently undermined the country’s digital push.
“Over time, that promise became overshadowed by mounting public concern over corruption, irregularities and systemic governance failures,” the report said.
Despite the rapid expansion of connectivity, training centres and infrastructure after 2009, the growth exposed a persistent mismatch between political ambition and institutional capacity.
As a result, strategic decisions were often aligned with partisan considerations rather than development priorities.
For example, of the 52 ICTD projects, at least 12 major projects and 65 components were named after political personalities or used directly for political branding, said the white paper.
It said site selections were frequently influenced by partisan interests and the ICT Masterplan 2019 formally adopted the ruling party’s election manifesto as a policy reference.
Narratives of progress were also found to rely on unverified or manufactured statistics on exports, employment and claims of large financial savings in digital public services, many endorsed by donor-funded entities.
Flagship connectivity projects such as Info-Sarker II and III became a “textbook case of triple rent seeking”, where public investment generated long-term rent streams for an existing private duopoly.
The initiatives were often facilitated through National Priority Project status, which enabled the bypassing of legal procedures and the granting of lopsided revenue arrangements.
A major institutional failure was identified in the Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority, whose mandate for innovation and industrial diversification was gradually redirected towards political spectacle and patronage.
The agency’s activities increasingly followed a “logic of partisan visibility and patronage distribution”, with parks and training centres launched without credible assessments of market demand, utility readiness or tenant capacity.
The task force highlights structural vulnerabilities in procurement and financial management across the ICT sector.
It points to syndicates of vendors, consultants and public officials that manipulated tenders, inflated costs, duplicated services and misappropriated funds.
Analysis of hardware components proposed in more than 40 direct project proposals reveals procurement anomalies exceeding Tk 1,000 crore, driven by unnecessary equipment proposed repeatedly for procurement without operational needs and under-specified technical requirements, the report said.
Direct evidence of overpricing is also found with instances of equipment acquired at up to 2–4 times the global market value.
Connectivity projects increased dependence on private monopolies, creating public-funded networks operated through private hands and fragmented donor systems, weakening state control over core infrastructure.
The investigation found that key initiatives, including Aspire to Innovate (a2i), were built on promotional metrics rather than verifiable outcomes.
The programme’s reputation as an innovation lab relied heavily on publications and potential efficiency claims, while actual performance data remained limited.
A dual-governance system allowed UNDP-affiliated consultants substantial influence over procurement and programme design, shielding decisions from domestic accountability.
Education-focused programmes such as the Sheikh Russel Digital Lab (SRDL) and School of Future showed widespread non-functionality, it said.
Many labs lacked maintenance, equipment or connectivity and school selection showed clear political bias. Independent assessments detected no measurable improvement in student outcomes that can be attributed to SRDL.
Urban digital projects, including the Digital Sylhet City Project, collapsed under political patronage, procurement capture and administrative gaps.
Wi-Fi coverage reached less than 5 percent of intended beneficiaries and no agency assumed operational responsibility.
Nine major projects showed breaches of fiduciary duty, misclassified procurement and weak data governance.
Fulfilling the original promise of Digital Bangladesh requires restoring the integrity of the institutions responsible for its delivery, the report added.