Editorial
A glaring instance of governance deficit
Why not computerise driving licensing system?
NONE other than the chairman, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has disclosed that 50 percent of the driving licences carried by motor drivers across the country are fake. What is more startling is the admission that those bogus licences were not issued by BRTA. Who were they issued by, then? Pat came the reply, albeit without any action plan to remedy the situation: the manufacturing racket is not all a private sector affair, a section of staff in BRTA and the ministry of communications are involved in the counterfeit licensing business.
The BRTA chief's disclosure is an underestimation of the malaise; for, we have heard it said from time to time by police authorities, independent traffic scene observers and road fatalities experts that the incidence of counterfeit licensing could be as high as 80-90 percent, particularly insofar as Dhaka Metropolitan area goes.
It was stated at the dialogue between the ministry of communications and the anti-corruption commission (ACC) that in the last five years government lost Tk. 20 crore in revenue income due to corruption at BRTA. This is again a gross understatement. The calculation on the basis of lost licence fees can only be misleading; because it does not encompass the whole range of losses sustained through putting untrained drivers on the steering wheel that cause lethal accidents. The toll taken of precious human lives, maiming of thousands and throwing thousands of families on the street is simply incalculable in terms of social cost, not to speak of the monetary.
Therefore, seeing the issue entirely through the corruption prism will not be an adequate diagnosis of what ails the system. It is very much a governance failure feeding on a heavy diet of corruption, mal-practice and mal-administration. Unfortunately, the caretaker government's reform agenda didn't stretch to the area of road safety, nor do the manifestoes of political parties include this grave public concern.
All said and done, the obvious solution seems rather simple and eminently doable. Why not computerise the whole procedure of licensing from form-filling through fee submission to issuance of licence printouts? When the gigantic work of presenting voter registration cards could be accomplished so efficiently, the matter of turning out driving licenses should be a cake walk.
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