The communications ministry has recently claimed that it could not repair roads and highways due to fund crunch, while it failed to spend timely the money allocated for two major donor-funded road development projects.
Besides the donors, the government every year allocates the ministry over Tk 600 crore for repair and maintenance of roads and highways.
Under revenue budget, the communications ministry spent Tk 660 crore in the last fiscal year for road maintenance and this year it was allocated Tk 690 crore.
“The ministry appears to be prompt in spending the government fund but fails to complete the donor-funded road maintenance projects timely as it has to ensure transparency,” said a finance ministry official.
A Tk 706 crore road-maintenance project, which was funded by Asian Development Bank and initiated in 2003, expired this June but the communications ministry failed to use the project money all these years.
The tenure for another ADB-funded road development project worth Tk 1,098 crore, which was taken in 2004, also ended in June this year and the ministry this time too failed to spend the project money.
In a recent proposal sent to the prime minister this month, the communications ministry said it could not repair roads for fund shortage and sought an urgent allocation of Tk 2,803 crore.
Meanwhile, the communications ministry’s claim of maintenance of 12,000-km roads in the last three fiscal years appears pretty unrealistic given the sorry state of the country’s national and regional highways and district roads.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
