The government has failed to utilise its virtual office solutions during the lockdown, despite the introduction of 'e-nothi', officials and experts said on Tuesday.
The shutdown of the offices for more than a month has affected the services and industrial work, resulting in disruption to official and economic activities, they said.
A former secretary said that the government had developed the e-nothi online office solutions in 2016 investing a huge amount of money aimed at quickening the official work.
"If it fails to utilise the solutions during this period, what is the outcome of the investments?" he said requesting anonymity.
"I know 100 per cent government job is not possible at this moment through the e-filing system, but the bulk of paper work could have been done by e-nothi software," the ex-secretary added.
The electronic filing system is the single online platform for 19,000 government offices and some 150,000 officials to serve the 170 million people of the country.
Experts said the e-nothi is one of the most important interventions to facilitate the Digital Bangladesh initiative by ensuring e-administration.
The ultimate goal of e-nothi is to ensure "Paperless Government" by 2021, they said.
Planning secretary Nurul Amin said that they had been working on a limited scale through the e-filing system to deal with emergency cases during the lockdown enforced after the outbreak of coronavirus.
"The government has provided officials of deputy secretary ranks and above with the internet and other logistical support. So within this level, it is possible to start the virtual office now," he added.
Mr Amin, however, said it fully depends on the government's decision.
M Asif-uz-Zaman, a former primary and mass education secretary, said that it could yield better outcome if it was possible to introduce virtual office through the e-filing system.
The present situation could be a good option for utilising the system, but it still has some issues of technology, security, and mindset," he added.
The director general of a government department said he could not proceed with a couple of emergency development projects due to the shutdown of government offices.
"If the e-filing system were functional, we could have received the approval for our projects' implementation. Although both the projects are very important in this situation, I could not start their execution due to the closure of the offices," he said.
When asked, public administration affairs secretary Shaikh Yusuf Harun said it was difficult to start the virtual office from home at this moment as there were some legal and systematic bindings.
"Some 90 per cent work may now be possible through e-filing system using our e-nothi solutions. But the remaining 10 per cent is not possible at this moment," he added.
When the virtual offices would be introduced in every stage of the government, then it would be possible to introduce "office from home" during the emergency situations like the COVID-19 pandemic, the secretary said.
Mr Harun said there are some public functions where physical presence is essential.
For example, he said, since the country has no virtual courts, it is not possible to conduct hearing without the presence of parties involved.
"We, the government offices, still need much work in presence of people, which is not possible for disposal without the physical presence of the people concerned," he noted.
