"The documents once prepared at the tables of deputy and joint secretaries are now being done through appointment of consultants," she regretted.

She said officials of the public administration have to be groomed to attain capability and efficiency for facing the challenges of the 21st century.

The prime minister said the government has made arrangements for necessary training of the officials at home and abroad to enhance their efficiency.

"There is no alternative to training and building up talents, skill and knowledge-based administrative mechanism," she added.

She asked the officials concerned to ensure formulation and implementation of training programmes for the newly recruited officials and employees as part of human resource development.

The prime minister was addressing the secretaries in the conference room of the cabinet division at the secretariat.

This was prime minister's eighth meeting with the top bureaucrats after she met them last June.

Mentioning the increase in professional and economic facilities for the government officials by her government, the prime minister hoped that the bureaucrats would be able to build up a dynamic, transparent and accountable administrative system in the country.

"The debt can be repaid by changing the lot of the people through forging and implementing welfare-oriented programmes," she said, asking the public servants to set an example of proper utilisation of the limited resources.

Referring to the floods and torrential rains this year, the prime minister noted that nearly one and a half months had been wasted in the exigencies of calamity.

She urged the government officials to work beyond office hours. "Construction of roads and other infrastructures can be carried out even on holidays," she asserted.

Stating that 109 new laws and a good number of policies have been formulated in the last three years of the government, Khaleda directed the government officials to utilise the new system for timely implementation of development programmes.

A programme might not be up to the liking of an individual officer, but it has to be implemented without distortion, she reminded.

The prime minister also directed the officials to be vigilant that government rules are not violated on verbal orders of senior bureaucrats.

She reminded that monitoring and ensuring implementation of government programmes are the job of the principal accounting officers and asked them to keep a close eye on the progress of programmes at the field level.

The secretary level work has to be "perfect and seriously taken", the prime minister said.

The nearly two-hour meeting with the secretaries also dealt with other important issues like effective land use, international assistance, environmental hazards, problems in recruitment and media relationship.

Food fortification, infusing dynamism in the administration, and introducing management-intensive administrative system also came up for discussion.