Less active ministries asked to return funds

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In the backdrop of poor implementation of the Annual Development Programme (ADP), the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) yesterday asked the low-performing ministries to surrender their funds to the planning ministry by February 7.

The Ecnec expressed dissatisfaction over only 21 percent implementation of the ADP in the first six months of the current fiscal year. It also directed the ministries to complete the tendering process for procurement before approval of the authorities concerned, a planning ministry official said.

The Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED) of the planning ministry will issue a circular soon allowing the ministries to complete tendering process before approval.

The ministries that fail to implement the allocated money should inform the matter to the planning ministry, which will divert the money to other ministries in the revised budget in February, sources said.

The directions came at the Ecnec meeting at the planning ministry chaired by Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed. He also directed the authorities concerned to prepare work schedules for completing the projects in time.

The chief adviser also instructed the advisers and the secretaries to continuously monitor the progress of the projects, sources added.

Coming out of the meeting, Finance and Planning Adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam said the large 10 ministries and divisions implemented 6 percent of their allocation in December, while only 16 percent implementation was accomplished in the previous five months.

“I hope the rate of ADP implementation will be much more in the coming months,” he told journalists.

The Power Division is however much slow in implementing the projects, he said, adding: “Some projects of Power Division may not be implemented for various reasons. As a result, the allocation for the division will be reduced.”

Aziz said 10 ministries, which get 81 percent of the ADP allocation, completed 80-90 percent task of tendering process required for implementing the projects.

According to the planning ministry’s review report on ADP implementation, 71 percent of the money amounts to Tk 15,416 crore has been allocated on purchase purpose for the large 10 ministries or divisions.

These ministries have already spent Tk 4,060 crore for purchase and issued 7,521 work orders that will require Tk 6,055 crore.

According to the ADP review report, the original size of the ADP for FY 08 was Tk 26,500 crore, while spending in July-December period was Tk 5,493 crore.

During the same period, Tk 3,340 crore or 20 percent of the ADP’s local component was spent, while it was Tk 2,156 crore or 22 percent in case of the foreign component that comes in the form of project aid.

In the budget for FY 08, Power Division got the second largest allocation after local government division. “In the first half, it has spent only Tk 674 crore meaning 18 percent of Tk 3,778 crore it was allocated in total,” the report says.

It says the ADP implementation rate in the last six months has hit a four-year low. Twenty-five percent of the ADP was spent in the first half of FY 07, while it was 27 percent in FY 06 and 29 percent in FY 05.

Of the 45 ministries and divisions, the larger 10 take up 81 percent of the total ADP allocation in FY 08. They are local government, power division, communications, health and family planning, primary and mass education, education, water resources, agriculture, energy and mineral resources, and post and telecommunications ministries.

Of them, primary and mass education, and agriculture ministries have used 33 percent of their allocation in the first six months. The other eight could spend between 7 percent and 28 percent of their annual development budget.

At yesterday’s meeting, Ecnec approved 11 projects of Tk 4,750 crore that include Tk 2,168 crore four-lane Dhaka-Chittagong highway, Tk 830 crore Sayedabad Water Treatment Plant (2nd phase), Tk 842 crore municipal services, Tk 218 crore improvement of Power Transmission Efficiency, Tk 143 crore embankment for Chapainawabganj sadar and Shibganj upazila, and Tk 152 crore railway rehabilitation scheme for Mymensingh.

The government was waiting for foreign fund for the four-lane Dhaka-Chittagong highway for the last two years. Having no response, it is now implementing the project by its own fund, diverting money from a project of digital exchange in an upazila growth centre.

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