People have received 19 types of services from Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) since 1987 but the state-run entity is still marred by corruption and harassment along with allegations of poor and unorganised service system.
Although BRTA has been saying that they have been upgrading their quality of services but are struggling with a manpower shortage, insiders have pointed to influence peddling by the vendors employed by BRTA as the reason behind the sub-standard services.
Officials involved in handling service seekers have said that they are becoming helpless to these vendors. Action is not being taken against them for not working on time as per the contract. As a result, service seekers are suffering in all areas, including getting a driving licence, vehicle registration, fitness or fitness renewal — leading to a tarnished image of BRTA.
Sources said that after the vendors got contracts, some became reckless. Fearing transfer, many BRTA officials become their accomplices. There is little precedent for taking action against the accused companies for failure to deliver service. The concerned officials are fulfilling their responsibilities by just issuing warnings or sending letters to the vendor companies.
The modern Vehicle Inspector Centre (VIC) has been introduced to prevent irregularities in providing vehicle fitness at BRTA, which has contracted a company named CNS for this. Apart from that, CNS has been awarded the contract for data archiving. However, many of the employees of this company are allegedly involved in irregularities.
For example, CNS employee Abdur Rashid draws Tk 500 as daily wages. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has found evidence that he has been taking money from customers in the name of providing driving licences.
Recently, an ACC team conducted a raid and arrested him red-handed. The ACC team during on-site inspections found that some other employees of this company were also involved in brokering by taking extra money for issuing fitness certificates, registration and driving licences.
CNS has been accused of being involved in a dispute with another company named Top II as well. As a result of this, a General Diary (GD) was lodged against three officials of CNS in Dhaka’s Kafrul Police Station.
The GD said that CNS Limited signed an agreement with Top II for the management and monitoring of fitness services digitally. However, CNS did not maintain financial clarity with Top II even though it was a joint venture. Top II General Manager M Rakibul Hasan claimed in the GD that the accused threatened him when he asked for an explanation at the BRTA office.
Later, CNS Managing Director Maniruzzaman Chowdhury could not be reached despite several attempts to contact him.
In this regard, Kafrul police Sub-Inspector Chinmoy Mondal, who is investigating the GD, said, "For the sake of fair investigation, I sat with both parties [plaintiff and defendant] following the court’s permission. But there has been no redressal. Details can be shared after the investigation ends.”
Meanwhile, vehicle owners need to collect a Digital Registration Certificate (DRC) during vehicle registration and transfer of ownership. However, customers are not getting DRC due to the card crisis. BRTA has been providing extended dates repeatedly for delivering the DRC.
The same situation is prevailing in the case of issuing driving licences. There have been reports of a smart card crisis since BRTA signed an agreement with India's Madras Security Printers for the driving licence cards. There are also complaints that some employees of this company harass customers.
But the good news is that BRTA is now offering e-driving licences. But the authorities are still unable to stop complaints regarding not being able to deliver it after taking fees from service seekers. This matter was recently discussed at the Road Transport Advisory Council meeting.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader inquired about the matter at the meeting and BRTA officials told him that around 4,50,000 cards are yet to be delivered.
Shajahan Khan, the former shipping minister and president of the Road Transport Workers Federation, at that time, claimed that the number of undelivered cards could be higher.
The meeting’s attendees also agreed that the delay was causing major suffering to the people.
The issue of the inability to supply the licence card and DRC card to the contracted companies was also discussed at that meeting.
ABM Amin Ullah Nuri, the secretary of the Road Transport and Highways Division, said that all steps have been taken to improve the quality of service.
“E-driving licence system has been introduced. The customer has no further work in the BRTA office after going to the examination centre. Licences are being delivered to homes by post. A new arrangement is being introduced for DRC. You will get an e-certificate after giving your fingerprint along with a photo. No physical card is required,” he said.
“Transparency while providing fitness services has been assured. We will introduce the Vehicle Inspection Centre in other places after Mirpur,” he added.
Asked what action has been taken against the companies that do not provide services as per the contract, the secretary said that action is being taken. “Contract termination is not the only solution. It should be kept in mind that we should not increase the service seekers’ suffering.
“It should also be taken into account that the process should not be suspended by litigation. So the process of solution is being emphasised.”
“A fresh tender is being floated for the driving licence delivery service. Overall, our focus will be on ensuring service and reducing suffering,” he said.
