People are not getting their desired services from the government and private offices as normal official activities have not yet resumed amid the ongoing wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Those, who are going to different departments of the government and private offices for personal or official work, often come back disappointed as they are not getting services.
Although the government and private offices have been fully opened, people are being deprived of services as most of the employees remain absent from the offices, many alleged while talking to the daily sun.

After the Eid vacation, ministries at the directive of the cabinet division issued orders asking their staff members to regularly attend their offices, revoking work-from-home facility.

At that time, Public Administration Secretary Sheikh Yusuf Harun said that all government officials and employees will have to come to offices as per normal rules.

Only the employees vulnerable to attack by coronavirus (Covid-19), sick staff members and pregnant women have been kept outside the purview of the order.

Naeem Islam works in a multinational company in the capital. A few days ago, he got an offer of job abroad. To apply for the job, he needed all the certificates of his educational institutions, attestation of the institutions, Education Board and Foreign Ministry.

“Although government offices have been opened, I have not been able to get my work done from the institutions concerned even after going there several days,” he said.
“Wherever I go to the offices concerned, it is seen that there is no sufficient employees. In this situation, if you complete work at one table, you will be stuck in another table. This is how service seekers are suffering.”   

It is learnt from sources that a file is stuck in the office where it was sent for approval. The file cannot be released due to the absence of the officials concerned.

After talking to several officials of government and non-government offices, including the secretariat, it is learnt that most of the officials are still in grip of corona panic.

Many abstain from going to office by showing fake corona certificates and as a result, there is no speed in work in the government and private offices across the country.

In some cases, new types of techniques have also been found. Rooms in many offices are kept open, light and fans are switched on to show that there are people inside. But in reality, no one is there.

If one tries to find out reason why government offices are open it will be just waste of his/her time. A government file usually needs signatures of more than one officers of the same wing.

In addition, if the work on the relevant file is also the same of another wing, the officers concerned of the two wings have to be present. But all the officers of a wing remain absent due to various reasons.

In most cases, there are problems with financial transactions. Files financial transactions require the signatures of officials at various levels. As a result, people from different organisations are not getting  desired services.

It is not only the service seekers who are facing difficulties due to the absence of officers and employees. In some cases, the heads of the institutions also face embarrassing situation.

After remaining closed for more than two months due to ongoing corona situiation, government offices across the country reopened on a limited scale from May 31.

At that time the government in a directive said that 25 percent officials and employees of every ministry and division will have to discharge official duties at a time or together by remaining present at the secretariat in the wake of the corona outbreak.

Later, the government in another directive said that the government employees will no longer enjoy the work-from-home facility. They will have to attend offices physically, like they did before the pandemic period.