The rate of implementation of the annual development programme in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year registered a record low at 54 per cent, lowest in four years of the Awami League-led government, planning ministry data showed.
According to the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division of the planning ministry, 54 government ministries and divisions could implement only 54 per cent in the July-April period, one per cent less than that of the same period of the last fiscal year, of the revised ADP of the current fiscal year.
Economist and planning ministry officials said with only two months of the fiscal year left and ahead of the national elections, the government surely would go for a spending spree in the remaining two months of the fiscal year to implement the remaining 46 per cent of the ADP to achieve its target of the highest rate of implementation.
The slow progress of the ADP implementation and such a possible hurried expenditure will result in low quality of development works and wastage of public money, they said.
Planning ministry officials said that most of the ADP implementing ministries and agencies failed to spend their allocated fund under the programme at expected level in the time due mainly to inefficiency and other implementation-related problems such as land acquisition and procurement.
IMED data released on Tuesday showed that 54 implementing agencies could spend only Tk 30,974 crore out of Tk 57,120 crore of the revised ADP during July-April.
In the same period, the agencies implemented 59 per cent in FY 2009-10, 58 per cent FY 2010-11 and 55 per cent in FY 2011-12, the data showed. In 2008-09, the agencies implemented 52 per cent in the same period.
The government initially allocated Tk 55,000 crore for the ADP in the current fiscal year and then in April revised the ADP up, for the first time to Tk 57,120 crore.
The government eyed to the highest ADP implementation in the current fiscal year. So it will spend Tk 26,146 crore in a hurried way in May and June to reach the target, a planning ministry official said.
The IMED data showed the overall implementation progress of the ADP was 93 per cent in 2011-12, 92 per cent in 2010-11, 91 per cent in 2009-10 and 86 per cent in 2008-09.
Policy Research Initiative executive director Ahsan H Mansur told New Age that the implementation rate by the end of this fiscal year was expected to reach to at least 95 per cent but lower implementation in April would push it to around 90 per cent of the ADP.
‘Now, if the government goes for hurried expenditure in last two months, it will affect quality of works,’ he said.
He said that expenditure till March was record high in the last few years but it fell in April mainly due to political unrest such as general strike.
‘In this situation I am concerned about the overall implementation of the ADP by the end of the fiscal year,’ he said.
‘Experience in ADP implementation has not been good over the years as the government implements only 50 to 60 per cent in the first 10 months and speed up the execution of the remaining 40 per cent in the last two months of the financial years,’ Zaid Bakht, research director at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, earlier told New Age.
He said that the last minute expenditure would not only lead to waste of public money but also give way to corruption.
‘It would also have a negative affect on the quality of works.’
According to the IMED data, of the total expenditure, the share of government funding was Tk 20,764 crore or 54 per cent and the share of foreign loans and grants was Tk 10,210 crore or 55 per cent.
According to the IMED data, in July–April, the Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division achieved the highest implementation rate of 347 per cent followed by the disaster management and relief ministry with 79 per cent, land ministry with 78 per cent.
On the other hand, Cabinet Division achieved the lowest implementation rate of 6 per cent followed by foreign affairs ministry with 10 per cent in the first 10 months.
-With New Age input
