We all agree that population explosion is our number 'one national problem. Family Plan ning Oe partment of the Government is working to control the population growth. Thousands of officers and employees are engaged in this work and crores of Taka are being spent. But there is little or no remarkable progress. Reasons are many. But the most important of the reasons perhaps is the complicated and anomalous administrative structure at the most important level l.e.. Thana level of the Department. In order to understand the gravity of the matter, the organisational structure of the Family Planning Department is briefly oytlined bellow.

Organisational Structure in. illustrating the organogram of the Family Planning Department the following precise structure can be erected:

’ THE MINISTRY: The Family Planning Department is under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. There is one Minister and one Secretary.

THE DIRECTORATE GENERAL: The name of the Directorate General is ’The Directorate General of Family Planning" not ’Family Welfare’. From this tier the Health Department is separated. It is known as ’The Directorate General of Health’, not Health and Family Welfare’. There are two Directors General known as the Director General of Family Planning and the Director General of Health Department.

DIVISIONAL LEVEL: In the Divisions also the Director of Family Planning arid the Director of Health Department are separate’. There is no complication of Health and Family Welfare in this tier.

DISTRICT LEVEL: In the Districts the Chief Officer of the Family Planning Department is the Deputy Director of the Family Planning and the same of the Health Department is the Civil Surgeon. These two officers are independent and not subordinate to each other. There is no complicacy of Health and Family welfare in this tier also.

THANA LEVEL: This level Is the most important level of the Family Planning Department. In fact, all activities of the Department revolve centering round this level. But. it seems, seriously anomalous administrative structure has been created at this important level. It is, however, difficult to project the existing anomalies, even then as far as possible the structure'is narrated below:

Thana Level Administrative Structure

Thana Health and Family Planning /Family Welfare Off! cer: This officer is of the Health Department. He is directly under the Civil Surgeon In responsibility. He is neither under the control of the Deputy Director of the Family Planning, nor is responsible to him. All officers and employees of the Thana Health Complex and Thana Health Department are under his control. He is mainly their sole administrative officer. He manages all professional, administrative and drawing and disbursing ac-tivitlea at Thana level.

Chain of command is concrete. No officers or employees of the Family Planning Department are under his subordination. He does not bear any responsibility or perform any duty of the Family Planning

Department. Thus the reason of nls designation being Thana Health and Family Planning /Family Welfare Officer is not clear. Rectification of this designation is necessary.

Thana Family Planning Of fleer (TFPO): This officer belongs to the Family Planning Department. He is not a doctor. He is under the control of the Deputy Director. Family Planing and is responsible to him. But here exists the major complication which will be clearly depicted in phases. Before that, it will be relevant here to mention that there are a few officers parallel to him who are neither under his control nor responsible to him. .They are directly responsible to the Deputy Director, Family Planning. Chain of command is not concrete.

Medical Officer Clinic/-Mother and Child Welfare Centre (MO Clinic/MCWC): This officer is a doctor. He comes on deputation from the Health Department. Recently the Family Planning Department has recruited some officers on ad-hoc basis. There is one MO Clinic/MCWC in the District Sadar thana where there is a Clinic or MCWC. He is directly under the Deputy Director and responsible to him. He has no accountability to Thana Family Planning Officer. Exactly similar is the situation with Medical Officer Mother and Child Health (MOMCH).

Medical Officer Family Welfare (MOFW): This Officer is also a doctor. He is recruited on ad-hoc basis. His place of work is Union Family Welfare Centre. But he is never seen there. He is under the control of MOMCH though he is in the senior scale. He- has no accountability to TFPO.

Assistant Family Planning Officer (ATFPO): This officer belongs to the Family Planning Department. He is under Thana ramuy manning Officer an0 is accountable to him.

Senior Visitor: This officer also belongs to the Family Planning Department. She is appointed on promotiori from among the Family Welfare Visitors. There is one Senior Visitor in each Thana. She is also not accountable to TFPO.

Other Employees: Under the Control of TFPO are a) Family Planning Inspectors (FPI): One FP! in each union, is Supervisor of the Family Welfare Assistants, submits monthly reports to TFPO: b) Thana Family Planning Assistants (TFPA): A few of them in each Thana, assist the TFPO as office assistants and storekeepers: c) Family Welfare Assistants (FWA): One in each unit of a ward; provides Family Planning services to the receptors at the village level; and d) Peon; One or two in thana Family Planning offices;

Those under the control of MOMCH are a) Medical Assistants; b) Pharmacists; c) Night Guards, d) Peon — all employed at the Union Family welfare Centres, and e) Typist: Works in the office of the MOMCH. primarily appointed under TFPO but later, on placed under MOMCH.

Those under the control of Senior Visitor are: a) Family Welfare Visitors; and b) Aya — one each at each FWC.

All of the above employees Including the Senior Visitor were under the administrative control of the TFPO. All on a sudden the above divisions were created by issuing a booklet.

Legal authenticity of that booklet is also not above obscurity

Administrative Complications

From the above administrative design the following < om-pluations are prominent besides many others:

1) The Family Planning Department is not; under Health Department anyway. But efforts apparently unfair, have been made to project the Family Planning Department under the control of the rhana Health Officer at the Thana Level. The Family Planning Department Itself has been humiliated by this undesirable effort. There is no Justification of designating the Thana Health Officer as the Thana Hea-Itii and Family Planning /Family Welfare Officer. This creates a feeling of complexity.

2) All the officers and employees of the Health Department at Thana level are placed absolutely under the sole administrative control of the Thana Health Officer. He controls their attendance, leave, annual confidential reports, salary and carries out all other administrative and drawing and disbursing activities. He alone is responsible to the Civil Surgeon and no other officer. Here the chain of command seems concrete. But. on the other hand, all the officers and employees of the Family Planning Department at Thana level are not under the administrative control of the Thana Family Planning Officer. Here all the officers except ATFPO are parallel and they individually perform administrative and drawing and disbursing duties. Employees under the control of one officer are no way accountable to another. A single administrative unit is dismembered into three divisions which is contrary to all management norms or theory. Because of this, the administrative and financial management of this Department has become very complicated, faulty and in fact ineffective. The officers are responsible to the Deputy Director parallely. So the functions botn at district and thana levels have become complicated and irregular. Administrative clashes, inter-personal non-Cooperation and indecisions have created a complete pandemonium at the Thana level administration of the Department. Official differences have even created persona) enmity. As a result, a tense situation is prevailing in each Thana.

Division of Drawing and Disbursing Power

From the inception of the Family Planning Department the Family Planning Officers supposedly had developed and flourished the department fighting against many odds. The doctors reportedly played a passive role always in this regard. Since then the Adminis-trative and the Drawing and Disbursing powers had been vested in the hands of the Thana Family Planning Officers and they had been performing this Job efficiently without any reported complications. But later on. without taking them into confidence the Adminis trative Divisions have been created. Recently in face of the demands and movements of the doctors, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare without taking the Family Planning Officers into confidence has bifurcated the Drawing

and Disbursing Power anc placed a part of It in the hand ol the MOMCH. Naturally th< Family Planning Officers were shocked; they lodged vehement protest against it. to th< extent of submitting memora ndum. to the then Prime Minister. Ignoring their protests the Director General of the Family Planning Department issued an order for execution of the decision. At this the Family Planning Officers became more enraged and the situation worsened further.

Comparison and Justifications

In no other government departments at Thana level, there exists such complicated and multifarious administrative system. There is only one chiei officer and all other officers and employees work under him. Administrative and financial powers are solely vested on him. Even In the Health Department, at thana level, doctors work under the Thana Health Officer’. Reasons for creation of such unnecessary divisions in the Family Planning Department is not understood. If it has been created for smooth functioning of the Department, then why complications are augmenting? Without involving all those concerned and without taking them, into confidence, how much the creating of such divisions is justified and compatible with the management norms and ethics?

In general consideration it will be realised that typist, peons, night guards and ayas ate no Technical persons and they do not perform any technical duties of medical nature. So there cannot be any logic to place them under the administrative control of Medical Officers and Senior Visitors. Those employees also seem to be very much unhappy with this arrangement. This technical' part can be kept within to its respective jurisdiction. It will no. create any hir.d-rance in the integrity of the administrative and financial aspects anyway. Moreover, the Medical Officers are either on deputation from the Health Department or are adhoc appointees.

Consequences

These unusual divisions have created dissatisfaction, polemical relations, disbelief and tensions among the officers and employees of the Family Planning Department All other employees except the Medical Officers have expressed their support .to their movement. They, assumably. are going to announce work stoppage and non-cooperation type of programmes. As a result, the main and effective part of the Department has become ineffective and retrogressive. Consequently, the work of great public interest like population control is being hampered seriously, whereas millions of Taka of the poor public Is being squandered. The logic on which the divisions were created has become obsolete. The officers having divided authorities naturally are not competent to control the situation. But then this cannot be desirable to any patriotic citizen of the country.

The writer is former Chief Store Officer of tile Essential Drugs Project Bangladesh. under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare