Despite city corporation authorities’ claim that a lack of fund prevents them from delivering adequate services to residents, five major issues have been said to be the reasons for the poor service.
It has almost been two and a half years since the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) was split into two bodies – north and south – but little has been done to improve citizen services because of five major issues continually hampering development of the two bodies.
According to city residents and urban planners, the five concerns are the absence of public representatives following the split, corruption of a few officials, irregularities and nepotism, lack of coordination between the two bodies and other government utility service providers, and confusion about jurisdiction over some areas.
Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) officials, however, denied the allegations and mentioned budget shortage and fund crisis as the reasons for failing to deliver quality services.
Professor Nazrul Islam, president of Asiatic Society of Bangladesh and chairman of the Centre for Urban Studies, said no research was conducted on the future pros and cons before the split of the DCC.
He suggested the government should not frequently transfer the two administrators – one for DSCC and the other for DNCC – every six months in accordance with the City Corporation Act. He also said a few corrupt officials hindered growth of both the bodies.
Mentioning absence of public representatives in the two city corporations, Professor Dr Sarwar Jahan, head of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Buet, said: “If the government does not change its decision, corruption and irregularities will continue rising while quality of services will deteriorate in the future”.
Residents of different areas under DSCC and DNCC alleged that they are still waiting for pothholes on streets to be fixed, and ensuring proper drainage system, garbage management, street lamp maintenance and anti-mosquito drives.
Moreover, collecting different certificates, including birth certificates and TINs, from a total of 10 zonal offices has become a tall order for city dwellers as they are allegedly forced to pay bribes for having their certificates issued.
DSCC sources said, in 2012 a syndicate, comprised of a few DSCC officials and a construction firm, embezzled a large sum through tender fraud for nominal road and drain reform.
More than 350 shops in different markets under the DSCC are under occupation of some Awami League and BNP leaders with assistance of some corrupt officials but the city corporation authorities are yet to take steps to recover them.
According to sources, a number of corrupt DNCC officials in 2012 embezzled a large amount of money through purchase and frequent change of low-quality street lamps.
DNCC authorities allegedly removed the newly-installed lamps in less than a month when troubles were detected. The authorities concerned then formed a committee to test the quality of the lamps.
In many places, road and drainage system maintenance has been poor as DSCC and DNCC authorities have not yet drawn a clear demarcation line.
DSCC Chief Executive Officer Ansar Ali Khan told the Dhaka Tribune, road and infrastructural development has been suffering from lack of fund.
“DNCC has a comparatively healthy annual budget. Its revenue is more than that of DSCC,” he added.
DNCC Chief Executive Officer BM Enamul Haque said: “We have strictly collected the revenue from our income sources and we get a bigger budget allocation than DSCC in each fiscal year. But comparatively, DSCC has more income sources than us.”
Enamul said they need around Tk560 crore for road repair throughout the year. “We spent about Tk400 crore from a total income of Tk456 crore in the last fiscal year.”
Former LGD secretary Abu Alam Md Shahid Khan said the government usually allocates the city corporations sufficient money that they cannot cover from their income sources.
“Every year, the two city corporations have more money coming from the national budget and they have more sources of revenues too. The allocation varies between the two for different new projects and foreign investments,” he added.
According to the FY2013-14 budget, the DSCC budget allocation for development and revenue expenditure is more than that of the DNCC. However, in reality, DNCC enjoys more development than DSCC.
DSCC allocated around Tk1876 crore in this fiscal year, of which around Tk1560 crore, allocated for development, is supposed to come from the government, private sectors, public-private partnerships and foreign finance, and around Tk288 crore, allocated for revenue, is to come from revenue income.
Besides, DNCC allocated around Tk1984 crore in this fiscal year, of which around Tk1132 crore, was allocated for development, is supposed to come from the government, private sectors, public-private partnerships and foreign finance, and Tk205 crore, allocated from revenue, is to come from revenue income.