In an ideal situation, deciding to turn an office into a paperless should be relatively painless. But of course not everything is ever simple with the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Ministry.
On March 11, the ICT Division of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and ICT formally launched the “e-filing” initiative, with an aim to increase efficiency and transparency of the public office and eventually become a paperless office.
On that day, in the presence of Sajeeb Wazed Joy, prime minister’s son and also her ICT advisor, and many journalists, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak announced the launching of the service.
He said: “Almost 90% of the official work can be done through this [e-filing] to create a paperless office. Even those working from outside their office or work station or the country can release files through the network.”
However, the Dhaka Tribune has learnt that even after seven weeks, only a single unit of the ICT Division has managed to start practicing e-filing.
Nazrul Islam Khan, secretary of the ICT Division, recently disbursed a letter to all the officials of his division asking them to use the National E-Service System (NESS) and shelve at least one document everyday through the e-filing system.
Slamming the officials for not using the NESS despite being ordered before, the letter issued special directives for the division’s additional secretary, the four joint secretaries and all the deputy secretaries to pioneer the use of the modern internet-based filing service.
Sources said the e-filing system was first initiated three years ago but had never been implemented until recently.
Kamaluddin Ahmed, additional secretary of the ICT Division, told the Dhaka Tribune that: “If we want, we [ICT ministry] can launch the service any day. But the problem is that the other ministries are not connected with the e-filing initiative as yet. So, we still need to rely on hard copies for official correspondence.”
He also said: “So far, we have introduced the practice on a limited scale within the ministry. For getting the best out of the service, all the offices of the government and administration must work in this system.”
At that programme on March 11, junior ICT minister Palak said: “It [e-filing] is a modern service and most of our officers are not accustomed with using digital services. So we are facing some problems.”
He also said the ministry had plans to arrange training sessions for the officials of all the ministries for making the service popular.
The NESS is a central platform for converting existing citizen services to e-services including online or mobile-based applications that are provided by various departments and government offices.