Staff Correspondent:

The last Awami League government had launched Mail Processing and Logistic Service Centres (MPC) in 14 districts across the country to modernise and expedite the postal system.

Despite an investment of around Tk 3.65 billion (Tk 365 crore), these centres remain largely underutilised. Within just three years of their inauguration, many of them have seen little to no activity, and a large portion of the equipment purchased for them remains unused.

Persons concerned say that not launching all services despite taking the initial initiative and purchasing equipment without assessing the demand is a waste of government funds. It appears the primary motive was to make profit through the procurement of equipment. Whether the equipment was necessary was never truly assessed, nor was its usage ensured.

The directorate of posts implemented the MPC project between July 2018 and June 2022, with a total cost of Tk 3.65 billion (Tk 365.49 crore). Of this, Tk 275 million (Tk 27.5 crore) was spent on infrastructure.

According to the directorate of posts, equipment worth Tk 2.89 billion (Tk 289 crore) was purchased for the MPCs. The centres were set up in Tejgaon of Dhaka, Gopalganj, Mymensingh, Khulna, Chattogram, Noakhali, Rajshahi, Pabna, Rangpur, Barishal, Dinajpur, Habiganj, Kushtia, and in Jashore.

No information about these MPCs could be found on the website of the directorate of posts. When they were requested to give the Detailed Project Proposal (DPP) but, they did not share that. Even they were asked in writing about the objective of the project yet, no clear response was provided.

Several officials working at these MPCs stated that letters and parcels from a few specific districts are brought to the centres via postal transport. Following a sorting process there, responsible postman of the posts directorate deliver the latters and parcels of that particular district to their recipients. Meanwhile, the letters and parcels addressed to other districts are forwarded to the next centre. The project costing Tk 3.65 billion (Tk 365 crore) was basically taken to digitise this entire process.

EQUIPMENT WORTH BILLIONS LEFT IDLE

Visiting the MPC building in Dhaka’s Tejgaon on 12 May afternoon, it was found almost deserted. A section on the ground floor has been rented out to a company named ‘Foshol’. Unused MPC equipment was left idle in the middle, while operations of the Nakhalpara Post Office were being run from a corner on the right. And, there’s the office of another company named ‘Bili’ on the first floor.

Reportedly, at least 33 types of equipment were purchased for the mail processing centres. Some equipment allocated for the Tejgaon centre is still left in their boxes, while some are lying around in the open. All the allocated equipment including metal detectors, archway gates, trolleys, X-ray machines, and other items are just collecting dust. Although the MPC is set in Tejgaon, its operations are run out of Kamalapur, said the staff from Nakhalpara Post Office.

Mohammad Wahid Uz Zaman, deputy postmaster general of the sorting and air division in Kamlapur, is in charge of the MPC centre in Tejgaon. He said that the centre operates in the afternoon. About the issue of equipment remaining unused, he said he cannot comment without looking into details.

The directorate of posts says that the sorting centre based in Kamlapur has been directed to be relocated to Tejgaon. Since that transition is not complete yet, the centre in Tejgaon is not operating in full fledge now. However, when looked into the matter in several other districts it was found that equipment is lying idle there as well.

The official activities of the mail processing centres began in February 2022. Media correspondents visited the centres located in Dinajpur, Mymensingh, Gopalganj, and Chattogram in person.

There were no activities at the facility in Mymensingh. Md Helal Uddin, the sub-record supervisor working there said they never received the equipment for chiller machines, stamp cancellers, Smart Postage Solution (SPS) systems, note-counting and binding machines, or queue management systems. Some hand trolleys and chairs are still left wrapped at the centre.

While a chiller chamber has been set up so that perishable goods do not spoil during transit, it is never used. Apart from that, equipment like fork lift, manual hydraulic fork lift, collapsible trolley case, platform trolley, archway gate, solar system, 500 kVA capacity generator and smart access control system are left unused as well.

Md Helal Uddin said the equipment that have supplied are of good capacity and quality. However the amount of posts needed to put them to use does not arrive there.

In Dinajpur, only two mail vans arrive at the MPC with letters and parcels every day. Though an archway gate and metal detector are installed at the entrance of the building, they’re out of order, and the scanner set up next to that is kept switched off.

Nearly one-third of the equipment provided at this centre remains unused with some of them still wrapped up. Even after about three and a half years, the chilling chamber is still non-operational. Meanwhile, all five air conditioning units in the building are broken.

Md Abul Hashem, assistant sub-record supervisor at Gopalganj MPC noted there are many machines at this centre that haven’t been used even once. Only the POS machine and the barcode scanners are put to use. The franking machine is also left untouched. There is a chiller chamber but no SPS, note-counting and binding machine or a queue management system. Even the chiller chamber also remains unused.

Mohammad Abdullah, inspector and supervisor of the mail processing centre in Chattogram, said they haven’t been supplied a forklift yet. The barcode scanners and the chiller chamber are used occasionally when parcels arrive. Only the trollies are used regularly. It wouldn’t make much of a difference without the archway gates. They are unable to fully utilise all the equipment for the lack of skilled and adequate staff, he added.

The directorate of posts has not provided a clear answer regarding the current condition of the equipment and activities of the MPCs located outside Dhaka.

NO SOFTWARE TO RUN EQUIPMENT

The directorate of posts had procured some equipment under a single package titled Smart Postage Solution (SPS) to automate stamp issuance, stamp printing, and fee assessment in the fastest time possible. This package includes computers, scanners, barcode label printers, and franking machines for parcels.

A total of 420 sets of this package were purchased under the MPC project at a cost of Tk 130 million (Tk 13 crore). However, these were not purchased for the use of the MPCs, but for the use of a few selected post offices.

When asked why the Smart Postage Solution packages were purchased under the MPC project among some other related questions, SM Shahab Uddin, director general of the directorate of posts directed the question towards assistant project director Md Shah Alam Bhuiyan. While there were three directors in this project, Shah Alam was in a key role right from the start and submitted the Project Completion Report (PCR) also.

In a written response, Shah Alam Bhuiyan stated that the SPS is typically used for parcels and issues related to e-commerce in the post offices. Smart Postage Solutions are not supposed to be at the MCPs. When asked how it ended up in the MPC project DPP, he replied that it might be used in MPCs in the event of bulk mail processing.

In order to activate the Smart Postage Solution service, specific software has to be installed to run the hardware. But even after three years, most of the MPCs have not been supplied that software yet. So, the equipment remained unused in most of those centres for the last three years.

An official of the directorate of posts on condition of anonymity “Why the equipment was purchased unnecessarily and who profited from it would come to light if an investigation is launched into this entire project.”