Security Printing Corpn likely to install new machinery soon

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Rezaul Karim Time-worn machinery and inadequate manpower have adversely affected the operational activities of the Security Printing Corporation (Bangladesh) Ltd. (SPCBL), a state-owned entity, to produce the required number of bank notes and other securities-related products. The SPCBL is running until now with three-decade-old machinery, apart from a shortage of manpower, impairing its works for printing of security instruments like bank notes, official sources said. Printing of important documents might come to a halt any time and there are serious security concerns over the current level of functional activities of SACBL, they said. "The age-old printing machine is not working properly. The SPCBL often fails to meet even 50/60 per cent of orders that it gets every year. Added to it is the problem of its manpower shortage," a source said. Bangladesh Bank (BB) sources told the FE Sunday they were also concerned over the situation. "We get only 50 to 60 per cent of the bank notes against our order in every financial year (FY)," a BB source said. The central bank placed an order with the SPCBL for printing 2,300 million bank notes of different denominations for FY 2010-11. However, the SPCBL could supply only 1,194 million bank notes, sources said. The SPCBL's production increased by about 50 per cent in FY 2012-13 over that of the FY 2006-07, amid the manpower shortage and the use of old machinery. 'It was possible largely because of proper management planning', SPCBL Managing Director Zeauddin Ahmed told the FE Sunday. The Board of Directors, especially its chairman, are trying their best to address the existing operational constraints of SPCBL, he added. The SPCBL could print 1,140 million bank notes against the requirement as per orders for 1,650 million in FY 2011-12. In the just-concluded FY, 2012-13, about 1,190 million bank notes could be printed against the orders received for 1800 million, the central bank sources said. Meanwhile, the SPCBL is likely to install new printing machinery soon for increasing its capacity for printing bank notes, cheques and other government's security-related printing materials. The central bank recently approved Tk 4.38 billion for the SPCBL as a loan, which would later be converted into capital, the BB sources said. In the event of the machinery going out of order during printing of highly-sensitive instruments, it would lead to a disastrous situation for the government, a source in the SPCBL said. Different documents including cheque books of different nationalised and private banks as well as security-related materials of the BB are printed by the SPCBL. A cheque book finishing machine was purchased from France for cutting, stitching and binding the security documents. But the corporation could not meet the growing demand, despite using the machinery in two shifts round the year. The SPCBL produced 11,112 pieces of government and other security-related products in FY 2012-13 against a far higher level of demand, sources concerned said. Besides, the existing machinery's operational efficiency and the quality of its products deteriorated while the multi-cutting unit of the machine remained inactive for the last two years, the sources said. On the other hand, the demand for cheque books is gradually increasing and the existing machinery remains malfunctional most of the time. "In this situation, a new machine is extremely needed for doing the printing job accurately," a source said. "Printing of banknotes by using the outmoded machines has put the people at risk of falling victims to counterfeit notes," he added.