Muhith says funds no problem for road repair
Road maintenance and many other important works were not done properly as numerous projects have been taken without priority and with small allocation of funds, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
Muhith was speaking with the media yesterday after a meeting with Ukrainian Agriculture Policy and Food Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk at his secretariat office.
“The road sector has about 147 ongoing projects with allocations like Tk 1 crore, 2 crore, 47 crore and so on. The problem is, none of the projects has been prioritised,” said the finance minister replying to reporters’ queries.
Muhith said, “Our demand is much bigger than the fund we have. So we must prioritise the demands. I have told the planning ministry to prioritise its projects and make the budget wing of ministries stronger.”
The ministries have to decide which projects to implement first and which later, he said, adding that it also needs to be decided whether money will be spent on repairing an existing road or on constructing new ones.
He said the total allocation in 147 ongoing projects is Tk 16,058 crore and of the amount, project 132 — meant only for road repairing — got an allocation of Tk 1,401 crore. The communications ministry got Tk 50 crore last year and Tk 57 crore this year for the project.
The Roads and Highways Department also got an allocation of Tk 2,974 crore in the revenue budget this year which includes Tk 690 crore for road maintenance.
Muhith said the communications ministry in 2009 sought an additional allocation of Tk 500 crore from the finance ministry saying that no roads had been repaired in the last seven years and that it had to pay off pending bills.
“I told them not to burden me with that as the planning and communications ministries together can make this allocation. So I asked the communications ministry to prepare a project and get it passed. They promptly prepared a project and had it approved,” he said.
“As soon as parliament approves any budget for a ministry, the fund becomes the responsibility of that particular ministry. There is no chhar (release of fund) business here,” he said.
Release of fund is required when there is no allocation in the budget and if the ministry wants to spend the fund meant for other projects on salary payment, Muhith told reporters.
He also said the communications minister should have approached the Planning Commission when he needed extra fund.
Asked whether the allocation in the revenue budget was being properly spent, the finance minister said the audit department monitors the matter.
Replying to another query as to why the condition of roads is so bad despite huge allocation of money, Muhith said, “It does not make any sense asking me this”.
The finance minister said during the meeting with the Prime Minister on Tuesday no fresh allocation was made to the communications ministry. It has been asked to spend the money for repair work quickly.
Muhith said it would not be fair to blame the communications ministry for not spending the Tk 690 crore allocation of the current fiscal year yet.
Muhith also said the present government is very alert so that corruption and plundering do not occur in big projects as the Padma Multipurpose Bridge.
-With The Daily Star input
