The process of introducing electronic fund transfer (EFT) system in the Bangladesh Railway (BR) has been delayed due to noncooperation of some quarters, causing the state-owned entity to face difficulties in paying salary of its thousands of employees manually during the lockdown.
As a result, the BR is now operating special trains to disburse salary and pension of its staff members for the month of March in cash amid suspension of train services across the country.
Recently the BR faced criticism after it operated special trains amid the lockdown for salary disbursement, arising suspicion that it secretly ran passenger trains. The trains had a good number of staff, including railway's security personnel and accounts section staff.
The BR has been maintaining the cash payment system since British colonisers introduced the service 130 years ago.
Sources said there is little possibility to introduce online salary payment soon, as data entry of the BR's thousands of officials and employees is yet to be completed.
As the organisation's organogram and administrative system are not like the other government agencies, completion of the data entry will take time.
Besides, a section of railway personnel do not want salary disbursement online in fear of losing control, they added.
"Initially there was lack of interest from the BR in launching EFT. But when they came forward by providing necessary information, technical difficulties delayed the process," said an official engaged in the process.
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) launched Integrated Budget and Accounting System (iBAS++) in fiscal year 2015-16 to enable 2.1 million civil servants to get their salary and other allowances online.
Like other public sector agencies, the BR was informed to be part of EFT after it had been launched under iBAS++. But the entity lagged behind, and ultimately responded to the government's call in 2018.
The process is quite time-consuming, as the agency itself has different accounting system and software as well as multi-disciplinary sections with a large number of officials and employees, they added.
However, Mohammad Shamsuzzaman, the BR Director General, said the MoF was late in starting work on the BR staff members' online payment. As the MoF is fully responsible for iBAS++, it is taking time to complete the work.
The DG also said the data entry of its staff is not that easy, as the BR is not like other office-centred government agencies.
"The BR is not an office-based organisation, 80 per cent of its staff work in workshops and stations in a scattered way," he told the FE over phone.
The BR accounts section officials said since the work on iBAS++ has been launched, they have completed 5,500 data entry. More than 85 officials are now getting salary online. Of them, the officials of BR's Eastern Zone are advanced in enjoying the system than its Dhaka Division and Western Zone.
Online salary payment system of all the BR officers can be completed by this year, as they post entry at their own and get it through account, which is called 'one bill one payment' system, opined the MoF officials.
As the major portion of the BR's staff is 3rd and 4th grade employees, drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) submit the salaries of all staff concerned in a single bill, which is the reason of delay in their entry.
However, a retired railway official said the BR has been maintaining section/department-wise data of all of its officials and employees since 2012.
He blamed unwillingness and non-cooperation, mainly of the agency's finance section, to share the data with the MoF to timely complete data entry work and get online payment benefit.
smunima@yahoo.com