There is a saying in Hindi: 'Sarker ki maal, dariya mey dhal', meaning that one is free to waste it the way one likes if the money/property belongs to the government. The indiscriminate misuse of resources is possible only in the absence of an accountability mechanism.
The resources belonging to the State get wasted in various forms and routes. Development project execution is said to be one major route when projects are either ill-conceived or prepared in a hurry.
It is no secret that implementation delays and faulty project preparation have been eating up a sizeable portion of the development funds that could be used otherwise. Time and cost overruns have become more of a norm, particularly when it comes to mega infrastructure projects. Hardly any rigorous scrutiny is done to find reasons for delay and additional funds are allocated.
Money is wasted not only on faulty development projects. It has happened with precursors such as feasibility studies usually done before initiating a development project.
The wastage of government money has taken place involving some feasibility studies in recent years and none seems interested in stopping it.
A report published in a leading vernacular daily this week has brought to the fore how the Bangladesh Railway (BR) has been wasting billions of Taka on feasibility studies on cost-intensive projects that had no potential financiers in sight.
The news report contains the names of some large projects where the BR spent a lot of money in the name of feasibility studies, but, finally, the projects got shelved for failure to get funds from abroad.
One such ambitious project was the introduction of bullet trains on the Dhaka-Chattogram route. The BR spent Tk 1.0 billion on the feasibility study, but the bullet train project remains a distant dream.
According to the report, the BR had carried out at least 20 feasibility studies on projects since 2009 involving a cost of Tk 8.39 billion. However, no project was put in place following these studies. The introduction of electric and circular trains was among those projects. Eight more feasibility studies involving a cost of Tk 3.64 billion, reportedly, are also in progress. None knows for sure what will be the result of those studies.
Spending a huge amount of money on feasibility studies by a loss-incurring entity such as the BR raises a lot of questions. Suspicion about foul play is very strong in this case. Allegations have it that suggestions for conducting feasibility studies often come from 'somewhere else'.
The money wasted on so-called feasibility studies belongs to the taxpayers and none is likely to dispute that fact.
It is important to carry out feasibility studies before taking up development projects, particularly the big ones. But, before embarking on the same, it is important to tap potential sources of funds required to implement those.
Since wasting taxpayers' money in the name of conducting feasibility studies has surfaced, it will be important for the government to stop the recurrence of the same.
The Planning Commission (PC) is supposed to play a key role in the development project formulation and execution process. But somehow its presence is not quite visible. Instead of leaving the responsibility of conducting project feasibility with the relevant government ministries/ agencies, the PC may consider having a separate wing within its fold for doing that job. Feasibility studies need to be started only on implementable projects.
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