The government has started the process of digitising the country's manually-managed land registration system afresh - after 10 years of launching the automation move, officials said.
The state-run Directorate of Registration (DR) under the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has prepared a fresh project bid for making the key service automated.
When contacted, Inspector General of Registration (IGR) Shahidul Alam Jhinuk confirmed the development, saying that the DR sent it to the ministry concerned for taking the next course of action.
After getting green signal from the ministry, it would be sent to the Planning Commission.
"Once it is okayed by the ECNEC, we'll invite tender for the competent bidders."
"It's a very important project as far as hassle-free service delivery is concerned," he also said.
When asked about the previous contract with a consortium of local companies,
signed in 2012 regarding the automation, he denied to make any comment, as he was not a part of the department at that time.
The government, as a part of its nationwide digitisation plan, took the move for automation of four land registry offices and record rooms in the country under the piloting in 2012.
The prime objectives of the digitisation programme were to make the citizens free from hassles and harassment by removing irregularities in land registration process as well as modernising and simplifying the service delivery system.
But progress of the project got halted in early 2014 despite completion of software development, a major task of its automation, as the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs found it inadequate.
Since then, the move remained shelved for more than seven years due to reasons hitherto unknown.
Seeking anonymity, a senior official at the ministry expressed his frustration over the delay in implementing the project.
He said a local consortium of three IT (information technology) firms was awarded the responsibility of developing necessary software for automation under the project.
The consortium of Business Automation Ltd, DataSoft Systems Bangladesh Ltd and Info Consult Ltd developed the software, taking all the requirements into consideration.
It had a major feature of delivering original deeds within a day, as people need to wait for several years and spend extra money to avail the original ones.
Instead of buying hardware to use the software, the ministry concerned halted the entire process and initiated the move anew, he noted.
"I don't understand why the authorities took so much time to implement it," he added.
The present situation has created doubt among the service recipients and the anti-graft activists about willingness of the public service provider to ensure transparency in land registration.
The officials concerned said the delay in digitising the country's manually-managed deed registration system would continue to provide scopes for bribery and other forms of corruption.
Completing the digitisation process is important also, as land registration is the government's second largest revenue source after the National Board of Revenue (NBR), they added.
Former chairman of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Ghulam Rahman termed the land registration offices across the country corruption-affected service delivery points.
He said the delay in launching a full-fledged IT-based service delivery system would keep the windows open for continued bribery, other forms of corruption, and harassment of the service recipients.
"It is unexpected. The agency concerned should realise the fact. Successful implementation of the project will reduce the scopes of unethical practices in land registration to a great extent," he also noted.
Land registration is a key area of the government, as a major portion of its non-NBR tax-revenue comes from this area.
In the financial year (FY) 2020-2021, around Tk 123 billion revenue was earned from land-property transfers through handing over of 3.47 million deeds.
Experts opined that the amount would enhance significantly, if the land registration process becomes easier.
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