Mismanagement and inefficiency at Chittagong port

Mismanagement and inefficiency at Chittagong port has reached shocking proportions and the importers are paying the price. They have lost Tk 11.95 billion this year alone. They are having to pay foreign shipping companies demurrage in hard-earned foreign exchange. This has pushed up the price of imported goods and, at the end of the day, it is the consumers that bear the burden.

While the major seaport of the country is in such dire straits, the chairman of the port, Admiral MA Khaled Iqbal, has gone on an overseas trip with his cohorts to ‘acquire knowledge’. And this is just two weeks before he is to retire. He supposedly will apply the ‘acquired knowledge’ to the development of Chittagong port. But when he returns from his tour, he will just have six days left in office before he retires on 30 January.

This 15-member touring team includes five members of the parliamentary standing committee for the shipping ministry. Yet this standing committee is supposed to be monitoring Chittagong port, ensuring the accountability of the port authorities. They should be looking into whether the authorities, including the port chairman, are running the port efficiently and responsibly.

Allegations of Chittagong port authority’s inefficiency are nothing new. The port is losing its reputation internationally due to excessive vessel jams, undue delay in unloading, lack of security and so on. Instead of addressing these shortcomings, the port authority simply blames everything on inadequate infrastructure.

The fact that the chairman and the others have gone off on a trip abroad to ‘acquire knowledge’ just two weeks before his retirement, indicates they have no real concern about the port’s problems. Stern action should be taken against the irresponsibility and unaccountability of chairmen like MA Khaled Iqbal.

The prevailing predicament of the country’s main seaport is not acceptable. Its overall management quality must be improved. This calls for the appointment of efficient, responsible and honest persons. It is also imperative to increase the number of lighter vessels and jetties in order to overcome the port’s infrastructural shortcomings.