The admission came at a roundtable on child mortality organized by bdnews24.com in association with Unicef at the National Press Club on Wednesday.
"If you look at your directorate, you will find some weaknesses in coordination," health directorate DG Abul Kalam Azad said in response to a question. "I would not deny that if the operations are huge, there must be some problems in coordination."
"There is a lack of coordination between two directorates," he admitted.
Family planning DG Kazi Mustafa Sarwar, however, said such weakness is minimal.
"Whatever success or achievement the Health Directorate has, that came from the joint efforts of the staff from both health and family planning directorates," he added.
Both the DGs said the efforts were on to minimise the differences.
Azad said, "We are trying our level best. We have health workers at the village levels as well. The family planning department also has workers at the grassroots. Starting from the centre, both the directorates are trying to enhance coordination down to the grassroots."
According to him, the community clinics could not carry out caesarean section, but normal delivery could be done there.
"However, we can make the referral. If anyone comes to us for medical attention, we take responsibilities," the DG added.
The two DGs were then asked whether they sat together to sort out the issues.
The family planning DG said, "We sometimes meet during the ministerial meetings. We discuss the issues we have at hand and how to sort those out."
The health directorate DG said, "We have dedicated sections to sort out those issues."
They also said they issue circulars on coordination matters.