A scheme for digitising country's land-registration process to rid the people of a corruption-ridden outmoded system has virtually stalled for months, for reasons that include vested interests.
Officials concerned listed such shortage of funds and fear of losing extra earnings and jobs by a section of people involved with the century-old service-delivery system as key reasons.
The government took the move for automation at five land-registry offices in the country for piloting in early 2012 before its nationwide replication.
Ridding the citizens of hassles and harassment by removing irregularities in the registration process and modernizing and simplifying the service delivery was the prime objective of the digitisation programme.
Importance of the land sector as a source of revenue income played its part in undertaking the modernisation process to keep abreast of the advances in land management in the outer world.
The government usually earns a minimum of Tk 50 billion (five thousand crore) -- a significant portion of its fiscal target for non-NBR tax revenue of Tk 330 billion -- from this sector.
A consortium of three IT (information technology) firms - Business Automation Ltd, DataSoft Systems Bangladesh Ltd and Info Consult Ltd-- was given the responsibility of developing software as part of the government's digitisation vision. An agreement on the task was done in December 2012.
But the process remained almost stalled since the last half of 2013 when the last poll-time government took the charge of holding the 10th parliamentary elections, according to the registry officials.
"Yes, the pace of the digitisation process in registry offices has slowed down for the last several months. But it hasn't stopped. We need enough funds for developing hardware where the software will be installed," said Inspector of Registration Office (IRO) Md. Sharafat Ali Khan.
He said they sent a letter to the Ministry of Finance in this connection.
A retired official at the registration office, Narayan Chandra Das, who was involved with the initiative from the very beginning, said the Ministry of Finance (MoF) approved Tk 100 million in the last fiscal year (2013-2014) for this purpose.
A consortium of IT firms was given the responsibility of developing software in the light of PPR (Public Procurement Rules), he said.
"But, since then, there has been no visible change although the implementation of the initiative is very much important to reduce hassles that the people face and narrow the scope of possible irregularities in the country's existing registration process," he said.
Seeking anonymity, another senior official at registration office said they had sent back the approved allocation of funds to the MoF as more finance is required to develop hardware system.
"Non-cooperation of the deed-writers, record copiers and apathy of some officials to welcome new form of service-providing methodology also contributed to the sluggish progress," he added.
From the very outset, deed-writers and record copiers (nakal nabish) have stood to the step out of fear of losing earnings and jobs if the computerised systems come into effect in place of manually-managed service delivery.
Talking to the FE, record copier at sub-registry office in Savar Mizanur Rahman said it would undoubtedly reduce their area of works through abolishing their handwriting activities. "So, question may arise about the necessity of our existence," he said.
The government's decision to stop recruitment of record copiers since 2010 has added extra fuel to their worries.
Another record copier, on condition of anonymity, said they get Tk 24 for recording per page of the deeds from government, which they normally receive after six months.
"With the existing system, we also receive little amount of money from the document-holders for the service and the amount helps us survive when the prices of daily necessities and other basic needs are mounting," he added.
According to the agreement worth Tk 65 million (6.5 crore), the consortium will install a software to serve the purpose of a secure, faster and hassle-free service system at the sub-registry offices -- three in Dhaka and one each in Jessore and Comilla at the first go.
The group of IT firms was chosen as it was technically first and financially lowest in the bidding race among the 27 participant local companies, it said.
When contacted, Chairman of the Consortium Jahidul Hasan Mitul said they had already developed the software having a major feature of delivering original deeds within a day or two as people need to wait several years and spend additional amounts of money to avail the original one.
He said there is nothing to be panicked as the software is designed not to eliminate anyone in the service-providing chain to comply with that government requirement.
Under the software, the deed-writers will keep their jobs continuing and the record copiers will scan before printing those out. A copy of the original deeds will instantly be handed over to the owner, another copy to be sent to the office of AC (Assistant Commissioner) of Land Office automatically while the final one will be stored in the central server.
"So, people will get land-related services or necessary information wherever they go. It's a kind of one-stop service that will minimise the scope of public sufferings and possible areas of irregularities," he said.
Responding to the fear of job losing by the record copiers, Mr. Mitul, also Managing Director of Business Automation Ltd, said the government shut the recruitment process as the existing number of record copiers is enough to execute the functioning with the new system.
"That doesn't mean that the record copiers will be terminated. They will rather be trained up to execute the computerised activities," he added.
Anti-graft activists expressed their dissatisfaction over the poor progress, saying that the government should not make any further delays in implementing the automation process.
Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Dr Iftekharuzzaman said property market is one of the key areas for the government to receive significant volume of revenue through sales and transfers of landed property.
"And we believe the automation process helps it get much more revenue through squeezing the space of corruption and other forms of sufferings," he said.
He suggested the IGR (Inspector General of Registration) Office under the Ministry of Law to mount pressure on the ministry concerned to get the requisite funds.
The national budget for FY'15 has set an overall revenue-collection target of Tk 1.82 trillion, of which NBR tax revenue is Tk 1.49 trillion.
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(Concluded)
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