Middlemen still dominate BRTA service centres
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Munima Sultana
Middlemen are still dominating different service centres of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) as it has failed to improve its service despite introduction of online system. BRTA service seekers said they are still dependent on middlemen at different centres to get services like car registration and fitness certificates from the authority due to complexity in the process. "It is not easy to know what to do and where to go to get car fitness certificate or driving licence in the normal process," said Khalil, a private car owner. He said help desks of the BRTA do not provide adequate information so that people can avoid middlemen for getting their work done. The FE has found scores of middlemen at the BRTA Mirpur office gate to be engaged in selling forms of different services and filling up those as the BRTA's help desks fail to meet the people's individual queries and guide them properly to make their process smooth. Nurunnahar, who came to the BRTA office for fitness certificate for her self-driven car, said the online banking has removed the hazards related to paying different fees at different places but it has not yet made the service smooth as people have to go from one desk to another to show papers and get those verified to complete the whole procedure. "Having made payment after standing for long in a long queue in front of the bank, I have to go out to do the photocopy of my payment receipt to submit it to another department by hand and then stand in another queue to receive the serial number for getting my car checked," the lady told the FE. Taking advantage of the weakness of the system, middlemen of five different categories were found doing brisk business outside the BRTA Mirpur office. "It is not possible to eliminate middlemen totally because of the present system," said a senior BRTA official. "The related information is available on the BRTA website," the official said adding, "Ignorance of the service seekers about various formalities for not visiting the website and their unwillingness to do their work themselves are the reasons for which the existence of middlemen cannot be removed." BRTA Mirpur office deals with 1,000 clients on an average everyday who seek different services including car fitness certificate. Apart from this, people go to BRTA for ownership transfer, driving licences, registration, correction of mistakes in documents, route permit etc. Prior to the launching of the online banking system, people had to go to at least three places namely post office, bank and National Board of Revenue (NBR) to pay different fees. The BRTA online service was introduced with support from some private banks as service providers in November last year which helped the authority to lessen its expenditure by Tk 80 to 90 million. BRTA earned Tk 6.50 billion in 2008-09 fiscal but it had to pay Tk 200 million as service charge to the post office the same year.
Middlemen are still dominating different service centres of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) as it has failed to improve its service despite introduction of online system. BRTA service seekers said they are still dependent on middlemen at different centres to get services like car registration and fitness certificates from the authority due to complexity in the process. "It is not easy to know what to do and where to go to get car fitness certificate or driving licence in the normal process," said Khalil, a private car owner. He said help desks of the BRTA do not provide adequate information so that people can avoid middlemen for getting their work done. The FE has found scores of middlemen at the BRTA Mirpur office gate to be engaged in selling forms of different services and filling up those as the BRTA's help desks fail to meet the people's individual queries and guide them properly to make their process smooth. Nurunnahar, who came to the BRTA office for fitness certificate for her self-driven car, said the online banking has removed the hazards related to paying different fees at different places but it has not yet made the service smooth as people have to go from one desk to another to show papers and get those verified to complete the whole procedure. "Having made payment after standing for long in a long queue in front of the bank, I have to go out to do the photocopy of my payment receipt to submit it to another department by hand and then stand in another queue to receive the serial number for getting my car checked," the lady told the FE. Taking advantage of the weakness of the system, middlemen of five different categories were found doing brisk business outside the BRTA Mirpur office. "It is not possible to eliminate middlemen totally because of the present system," said a senior BRTA official. "The related information is available on the BRTA website," the official said adding, "Ignorance of the service seekers about various formalities for not visiting the website and their unwillingness to do their work themselves are the reasons for which the existence of middlemen cannot be removed." BRTA Mirpur office deals with 1,000 clients on an average everyday who seek different services including car fitness certificate. Apart from this, people go to BRTA for ownership transfer, driving licences, registration, correction of mistakes in documents, route permit etc. Prior to the launching of the online banking system, people had to go to at least three places namely post office, bank and National Board of Revenue (NBR) to pay different fees. The BRTA online service was introduced with support from some private banks as service providers in November last year which helped the authority to lessen its expenditure by Tk 80 to 90 million. BRTA earned Tk 6.50 billion in 2008-09 fiscal but it had to pay Tk 200 million as service charge to the post office the same year.