Public offices see leap forward in e-filing

The use of 'e-nothi' or 'e-filing' in public offices under the Access to Information (a2i) Programme is leaping forward at a much quicker pace across the country despite a number of challenges.

The system introduced in 2016 is giving the administration the much-needed breather in providing quick public services in the online paperless process.

This is a centralised online platform for official file management where the files in the soft form or those others received in the hard form but then transformed into the soft version are processed and disposed of electronically.

The government introduced the system under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division with guidance of the Cabinet Division to make public offices free from red-tapism and harassment and minimise the time required for service delivery.

This is also helping in improving the ease of doing business to a great extent as Bangladesh is still lowly-placed in this area.

As of February 2020, there were 7,840 public offices, more than 41 per cent of the total across the country, using e-filing, mostly at the upazila and district levels. There were around 90,000 users during the period, according to the project office that is implementing the e-filing initiative. The number of beneficiaries was nearly 11.8 million, the office said.

The government has planned to expand this e-filing platform to cover all 19,000 government offices and 150,000 officials serving more than 160 million (16 crore) people in the country by 2021 to make the Digital Bangladesh campaign a success.

So far more than 100,000 officials have been trained on it. The remaining officials are expected to be brought under the training programmes within this year, according to the Department of Information and Communication Technology.

"This [e-filing] is the biggest and most successful reform programme concerning the government's file management," said N M Zeaul Alam, senior secretary at the ICT Division.

He said this is the perfect way of serving the people "anywhere anytime" as the file moves instantly.

Mr Alam said: "I think efficient bureaucracy is very much important for efficient public service delivery and economic growth and the e-nothi is meeting that end."

"The government officials now have become tech-savvy," he said.

"Red-tapism" had been there in Bangladesh's bureaucracy since the British era. It was believed to be the biggest hurdle to quick service delivery, he added.

There had been many reform programmes conducted especially since 1990s. But they did not yield the expected results, when it came to welfare of the people, who still faced harassment while seeking different public services.

The new system has been driven by an overarching philosophy of putting citizens first by means of cutting red tape, improving service delivery, engaging public sector employees and getting faster results for citizens.

If the new system is adopted fully, there will be no room for any manipulation. Even none will be able to open a file on a back date, the practice of which is rampant in the bureaucracy.

Khorshed Alam Khan, a deputy secretary who was involved with the project earlier, said e-filing can help process a file even in 10 minutes which earlier used to take at least 4/5 hours or even few months.

"Our office is fully e-filing-compliant and no file is remaining pending there," said the official at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication.

The system has helped pace up work compared to the previous manual procedure as the file can be tracked and located from anywhere any time through any mobile application that works like a "portable workstation"

The introduction of mobile apps involving the system officers has paced up the service delivery as now officers can dispose of files staying at home or abroad.

Mr Khan said searching an old file by the headword is very much easy. "In the manual system finding such a file was too time-consuming."

Officers receive alarms and short text messages on arrival of files, he commented.

But there are many challenges facing the new system, finds an evaluation of the 'e-Nothi' System in Government Office Management conducted by the project management team of the a2i programme.

The research objectives were to assess the present (October 2018 to December 2018) situation of 'e-Nothi' use and also assess effectiveness of the system in Bangladesh.

Most of the respondents blamed the low server capacity for inconveniences they suffered. A total of 41 per cent of the interviewees said the second biggest hurdle was the slow speed of internet. About 36 per cent said the attached file display took too much time. Some 18 per cent said they had a sense of insecurity about confidentiality of their files.

When contacted, some people who used the e-nothi system said there were some problems with scanning of large files like those of the Law and Justice Division, Finance Division and so on.

"We cannot upload large budget-related files, so we cannot fully implement it," said Fazlul Bari, an additional secretary working at the Finance Division.

But, the e-filing office under the ICT Division said they had been weighing introduction of a new version of the system that would resolve many of the existing problems.

"We're expecting another revolution in e-filing as we will use artificial intelligence (AI), voice tag and auto suggestion under the system," said Nilufa Yasmin, National Consultant for e-file Implementation, Access to Information, ICT Division, while talking to the FE.

She said the second version would be released on June 20.

There is another problem facing the system. A large number of older government officials are reluctant to use the new system.

They feel comfortable with opening new files under the manual system.

But the younger people handling e-files told the FE they were quite okay with such filing.

"I feel comfortable dealing with such filing, there is no hassle with correction," said Sohel Ahmed, an administrative officer working at the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs talking to the FE.

National consultant Nilufa Yasmin told the FE the generation gap is a problem and they hope the others will overcome it through intensive training and motivation.

On the other hand, there are some case studies that attest to immense benefits from the online platform.

Abdul Khaleque, a freedom fighter at Hajiganj in Chandpur, said he changed some pieces of information in the gazette through the e-filing system.

Mr Khaleque did not need to visit Dhaka and did it within two weeks.

"I got a text message within two weeks," he said.

Similarly, power plants' officials needed to visit their headquarters each week from different parts of the country. It cost both time and money.

"We used to visit Dhaka each week, now the frequency has dropped significantly following use of e-nothi," said Engr. AMM Sazzadur Rahman, Managing Director at Ashuganj Power Station Company Ltd.

"Definitely, this has been a fall in transport cost and people's involvement," Mr Rahman said over phone.

Currently, all power plants, gas-field operators and other energy-related offices numbering 287 under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources are using e-nothi.

The e-filing system is believed to be ensuring a hassle-free business environment leading to the rise in Bangladesh's ranking in the ease of doing business, a global key indicator.

"There is no direct impact of the e-filing, but if there is the fastest service delivery, that has an impact on the indicator," said Dr Masrur Reaz, a senior economist at the World Bank Group, talking to the FE.

The ICT Act 2006 (amended in 2009 and 2013), Secretariat Instruction 2014 and National ICT Policy 2015 (amended in 2018) all provided a legal basis for electronic file management.

The e-filing system is also related to the SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) 16.6 i.e. "develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels."

Keeping these factors in mind, the Access to Information (a2i) Programme under the ICT Division with the guidance of the Cabinet Division launched the e-filing (e-Nothi) solution that helped increase organizational transparency and accountability relating to governance.

The system is aimed at making the government's administrative duties more efficient and effortless in line with the goal of establishing paperless government offices while reducing the time-consuming, complex and corruption-prone manual filing process.

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