As the inefficiency of project directors is blamed for inordinate delay in implementation of development projects, the government has now decided to select them through interview for ensuring the appointment of qualified officials to the posts to expedite execution of Annual Development Programme (ADP).
Following poor performance in execution of ADP projects by the ministries in the last financial year (FY) 2014-15, the planning minister sat with the secretaries recently to review the matter in order to gear up implementation.
After the meeting, the planning minister said ADP implementation process will be speedy if the project directors (PDs) are qualified, dedicated and experienced. Past experience and academic background will mainly be considered for appointing PDs for the upcoming projects.
A board, headed by the secretary of the ministries concerned, will conduct the interview giving emphasis on subject-specific knowledge for selecting them as PD. The planning ministry will soon prepare a guideline in this regard. Currently, there is no guideline for selection and appointment of the PD for a development project.
Since long, the Planning Commission (PC) has been working on formulating a unified system of PDs' appointment on the basis of project-related experience. It was witnessed that sometimes ministries used to transfer PD for a single project more than once, which affected its implementation due to leadership crisis. Besides, in most cases, the PDs do not have required experience on their specified projects. And this is also a cause for delayed execution of the project.
In the last FY 2014-15, the ministries and agencies spent 91 per cent of the Tk 750-billion ADP. Besides, all the ministries and agencies could spend only Tk 6.07 billion or 1.0 per cent of Tk 970-billion ADP in July of the current FY2015-16.
However, the planning minister claimed that the rate of ADP implementation would have been cent per cent had there been no political turmoil in the first three months of 2015. Three months' political violence and non-spending of Tk 33 billion from the total Padma Bridge project allocation in the last fiscal are the main reasons behind the failure to implement ADP in its totality.
For such a poor performance of the ministries, the concerned ministries and divisions were instructed to monitor and evaluate the implementation progress of the projects, alongside the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the planning ministry to ensure the quality of project implementation. It was also decided that each ministry and division would appoint a dedicated officer to conduct the evaluation programme.
The new guideline is expected to ensure that the PDs will stay at project site to supervise the progress of the projects. Currently, the project directors stay in Dhaka in spite of the fact that most of the project sites are out of the capital. Only a PD of a nation-wide project will be allowed to stay in Dhaka and a deputy project director will be appointed for the project site if there is any component being executed outside Dhaka. However, there is a need for ensuring suitable accommodation and necessary transport facilities for the PDs so that they could stay at the project sites.
The Public Procurement Rules-2008 is expected to be amended to simplify the procurement process for expediting the project implementation. It was decided that nearly 200 development projects would be written off from the ADP as these projects have practically become obsolete and ineffective. They have either completed their tenure in the middle of the implementation stage or have remained stuck after implementing a very little portion. As such, continuation of such projects will simply be waste of time.
Concern was also raised over complexities in land acquisition as it was seen as a major obstacle to project execution. On this particular issue, the planning minister instructed the secretaries not to take any project before solving the problems related to land acquisition. It was claimed that the complex land acquisition system, inadequate fund disbursement and complex public sector procurement process mainly cause delays in project execution in time.
Added to this, there are concerns over the complex monitoring system and procurement process of development partners for delay in project implementation. It was suggested that the planning minister would take immediate steps to simplify and quicken the project approval process at the Planning Commission.
Although the planning ministry had taken a number of steps to expedite the project execution, the implementation status was the lowest in five years in the last fiscal year as the performance of some bigger ministries was below the mark.
Among the top 15 fund holders under the last ADP, the health and family welfare ministry, railway ministry, bridges division, and industries ministry had executed below the average rate of development budget implementation (91 per cent). In most of the cases, the ministries and divisions reportedly fail to implement even 15 per cent of the total outlay in the first quarter of a financial year. But they demand even up to 50 per cent of their total yearly allocation in the last quarter of a financial year. This is ridiculous.
This is allegedly a serious indiscipline on the part of those who are responsible for fund utilisation from the government exchequer. Development experts opine that the PC should give emphasis on physical progress of development projects, not on the spending the allocations.
On its part, the PC has decided not to tolerate such mismanagement of the fund utilisation for the development projects. All the ministries have been instructed to implement their projects on a rational basis every quarter. If the yearly allocated funds are utilised properly on quarterly basis, this will reduce sudden pressure on the government exchequer.
Repeated changes in project components, delay in project start-up, land acquisition related complexities, sluggishness in procurement and tender and also in appointing consultants and meeting terms and conditions in aided projects, fund withdrawals by development partners are reportedly leading to frequent revision of the projects.
Such a traditional practice of frequent revisions to ADP projects happens to be a major source of draining public money and wastage of time. If appropriate action plans to enhance efficency in project management could be chalked out, a substantial amount of public money would have been saved. The development projects could then be implemented much faster. szkhanfe@gmail.com
Expediting project implementation
Shahiduzzaman Khan | Published: September 13, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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