The New Nation - Internet Edition

Shamim Jahangir

The Directorate of National Savings (DNS) is yet to be brought under computerisation system though it has been playing a vital role in domestic resources mobilisation.

Lack of access to computer system has been hampering the activities of DNS, an important wing of the Finance Ministry, to a great extent, according to DNS sources.

Besides, this organization is now faced with multifarious problems including shortage of manpower, sources added.

"We have 68 divisional and branch offices in 64 districts across the country. Of the offices, only the principal office of the Directorate of National Savings has far been brought under computerised system," said DNS director Saifuddin Ahmed Mojumder.

He told the New Nation that after the independence of the country DNS started its activities with 484 employees. But the manpower of this was reduced to 376 in 1981 on the recommendation of the Anam Commission.

The manpower strength of DNS now stands at 344 as against the minimum requirement of 500,he added.

Besides, the poor accommodation facilities in all the branches of DNS have been hampering overall activities of the officials and staff members, he noted.

The volume of investment and size of internal resources mobilisation have been declining over the years as DNS could not motivate people to savings due to shortage of manpower, informed sources said.

The sources pointed out that the neat investment under 13 schemes of DNS was 1800 crore till April 2007-08 fiscal compared to Tk 4,174.92 crore in 2006-07, Tk 2,966.58 crore in 2005-06, Tk 2496.07 crore in 2004-05, Tk 3905.58 crore in 2003-04, Tk 4306.02 crore in 2002-03, Tk 4666.73 crore in 2001-02, Tk 4237.26 crore in 2000-01 and Tk 3243.18 crore in 1999-2000.

During his recent visit to DNS, Morshid Kuli Khan, Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank, underscored the need for modernising the organization for gearing up its activities for internal resources mobilization.

Mobasherur Rahman, Director General of Bangladesh Post Office, said shortage of manpower in post offices was the main hurdle in the activities of deposit savings. 8,000 posts of rural post offices out of total 10,000 across the country had no role to play in savings activities due to shortage of manpower, he mentioned.