Urban local government institutions, comprising of city corporations and municipalities, in Bangladesh are by law expected to provide basic urban services to citizens. More often than not, these institutions fail to deliver on their pledges. They have experienced tremendous fiscal stress, and hence have not been able to operate and maintain existing level of services, which were generally well below commonly acceptable benchmarks. Based on citizens’ perceptions, this study assesses the nature of urban local government institutions’ governance and institutional weaknesses, and explains how their practices eventually lead to poor urban service delivery in the context of Bangladesh.