Bangladesh Post Office (BPO), hamstrung by manpower shortage, has refused a Tk 21.6 million annual offer for distribution of bills of the Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited (TGTDCL).
"We cannot receive this lucrative offer from TGTDCL due to shortage of postmen," said Director General of the BPO Mobassher ur Rahman Saturday.
As per the Titas proposal the BPO was required to distribute around 0.6 million letters per month among gas consumers, he said.
Titas is now distributing the letters through some private courier companies.
Mr. Rahman said that BPO informed Titas that it would accept the proposal only when it could recruit more postmen.
Not only Titas, some renowned government and non-government companies have given the BPO proposals for distribution of their documents, which could help generate a large amount of revenue for the postal department, the BPO DG said.
According to the BPO, some 3512 posts have remained vacant across the country.
"We sent a letter to the post and telecommunication ministry in December last requesting permission for recruitment of the postmen. But we have not yet received any response from the ministry," Mr. Rahman told the FE.
Mails, parcels and express mails sent abroad account for some half the annual revenues of the BPO, which incurred a loss of around Tk 1.25 billion in the last fiscal year.
The department, one of the oldest in the country, has been desperately looking for alternative sources of revenues to cut back on its losses and make its services quicker and consumer friendly.
Earlier, the BPO signed deals with two global financial behemoths -- Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank -- ,the American money transfer company Western Union and other country's private commercial banks (PCBs) to deliver their remittances across the country in exchange for annual fees.
"Time has changed. We no longer dominate the money transfer business or letter posting services in the country," said Mr. Rahman adding that we want to change the way post offices operate in the country. "We want to make our postmen hard working and efficient," he added.
The BPO chief said the organisation is now prepared to take more new income generating ventures, but it will not be fruitful unless the vacancies are filled.
"Out of our 10,000 offices, only about 1000 situated in the cities and towns are in full use. The rest remains underutilised throughout the year," he said.
Manpower shortage forces BPO to refuse Tk 21.6m Titas offer for bill distribution
Mahmuda Shaolin | Published: June 29, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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