KATHMANDU: That e-mails are replacing traditional letters and that private postal service providers are doing the job of the Postal Service Department (PSD) in most urban centres are not the only problems the government agency is facing. Presently, post offices across the country are reeling under acute workforce shortage. About 3,200 of 9,952 permanent posts are lying vacant in the department. In the officer level, the situation is worse with 82 of the 118 posts vacant. As a result, most offices are headed by deputed officials, mostly juniors. Such officials are not delegated all powers. "The lack of human resource has hit the overall service delivery in the post offices," said Lok Prasad Acharya, director general of the PSD. "We did not have this problem as long as 'postal group' existed in the bureaucracy." Before the group was scrapped, an official appointed in the postal service could not be transferred to any other department. Kedar Bhattarai, under secretary at the PSD said most officials wanted to be transferred to lucrative offices such as revenue or transport. Another official said on condition of anonymity that employees were provided no motivational factors. "The organisational structure is getting weaker and the day-to-day functioning is largely traditional," he remarked. The PSD has 10,700 personnel in Additional Post Offices but their posts are not permanent since their service is on contract. There are two ways to replenish the workforce: fresh recruitments or promotion. The PSD can promote only up to the post of non-gazetted first class officer while fresh permanent recruitments should be made by the Public Service Commission. Citing a recent case, Bhattarai said only one of the 42 Section Officers selected by the PSC was assigned to work in the Ministry of Information and Communications, which the PSD is a component of, but was appointed in the Department of Printing.