Service recipients approach middlemen as BRTA virtually inefficient

The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) is operating with very few people, becoming virtually an inefficient service provider as the service recipients are highly dependent on the middlemen, sources said.

Of its more than 30 categories of transport-related services, they said, the authority is heavily criticised for the poor services that include issuance and renewal of vehicle fitness certificates as well as registration and driving licences.

Since its inception 32 years ago, the organisation is neither able to create trained drivers for all categories of vehicles nor can ensure efficient transport services or route selection, they added.

"There are shortages of people at all stages - from officials to engineers and technicians at the BRTA," said an official.

"Not only that, it runs many district-level offices with only one or two men in a small room despite the number of all kinds of vehicles increased significantly across the country," he added.

According to the BRTA data, the volume of work of the authority increased by 1,683 per cent in the recent time since the year 2000, but its manpower during the period increased by only 183 per cent in three phases.

The BRTA started journey with 47 staff members as Superintendent of Road Transport Maintenance (SRTM) in 1962. The number of members increased to 62 after its conversion to Directorate of Road Transport Maintenance (DRTM) in 1977.

With only 291 people, including 62 of the DRTM, BRTA officially started working in 1987.

Officials said it took more than 15 years to reconstruct the BRTA, but only 19 people were added to it, increasing the total manpower to 310 in 2004.

The number was then increased to 573 in 2006 with which it continued till 2012. In 2013, the government increased the manpower to 655. BRTA got hands of 815 people in 2016 and another eight people in 2018.

Now, the BRTA is trying to reorganise its organogram with a manpower of 2,282 people, considering the needs at its headquarters, divisional, circle and district offices.

Sharing the BRTA data since 2000, officials said the volume of works is gradually. The registration of motorised vehicles through its all offices increased to 504,016 in 2019 from only 37,462 in 2000.

The BRTA's works have by now hugely expanded. Other than fitness, driving licence, training and renewals, it has to issue route permits, approve vehicle modification, exchange of ownership, change of engines and colour of vehicles, registration of workshop, driving training schools, transport manufacturers, assembling and sales organization, contractor, instructor etc., according to officials involved in designing the organogram.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges has already held discussion on the proposed manpower and recently sent it to the Ministry of Finance for approval. A meeting is expected to be held tomorrow (Tuesday).

When asked about the middlemen and outsourcing with the increase of the BRTA manpower, Chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder said that the demand for 2,282 people was assessed considering the needs of people at different stages, not middlemen or outsourcing.

"As the BRTA lacks necessary infrastructure, we have placed minimum demand for people. So, after infrastructure development at all stages, more demand would be created," he told the FE over phone.

But the BRTA takes skill tests of each driver applicant in five minutes and issues one licence in three minutes against an average 300 applicants daily in its Dhaka offices.

The BRTA official said the new demand for manpower is also related to improving its online services which are newly added in line with the government's target to digitization.

Under the reconstruction programme, he said, the BRTA designed 823 posts in 62 categories for which an estimated revenue of Tk 660 million would be required.

Stating the BRTA data, the official also said the revenue expenditure would increase but not that much as compared to what it would earn through providing services after the reform.

The BRTA earned revenue of Tk 16.79 billion in 2019-20 fiscal year and collected tax of Tk 13.38 billion, including VAT, during the period. The BRTA's collection in 1987 was only TK 18,000.

At present, the number of BRTA registered vehicles is now 4.52 million against which 3.76 million driving licences were issued. The number of vehicles and drivers in 1987 was 175,000 and 190,000 respectively.

[email protected]