Underperformance by several vital sectors dragged to a four-year low the utilisation rate of development budget in the past fiscal year, sources said, attributing the slowdown to incompetence.
The Annual Development Programme (ADP) implementation in the fiscal year (FY) 2023-24 was lowest in four years to 80.92 per cent of the even pared-down budget, officials said Tuesday, as a reckoning began under the interim administration.
Even after a downward revision of the ADP in March, in view of a slow going, government ministries and agencies during the July 2023-June 2024 period utilised hardly 80.92 per cent of the Tk 2.54-trillion revised outlay--4.25-percentage-point lower than the level in the previous FY2023, official data showed.
In the previous fiscal, the ADP-execution rate was recorded 85.17 per cent.
Meanwhile, the lowest ADP execution under the Sheikh Hasina government four years ago in FY2020 was 80.39 per cent. Thereafter, there had been a better performance in the subsequent three fiscals: FY2021, FY2022, and FY2023.
Officials at the IMED say massive fallouts from a sluggish project execution by the roads and highways division and shipping and heath ministries "have slowed government's development- works performance as their execution rates were deep down the average".
During the immediate-past fiscal year, the government ministries and agencies spent Tk 2.058 trillion or 80.92 per cent of their Tk 2.54 trillion worth of RADP outlay, the data showed.
"Over the previous three fiscal years, the implementation performance had been better, until the setback in the FY2024," said a senior official concerned.
According to the IMED, the public agencies implemented 85.17 per cent in FY2023, 92.74 per cent of the ADPs in FY2022 and 82.11 per cent in FY2021.
An FE analysis has found some big ministries and agencies, including the shipping ministry, health division, roads and highways division, and bridges division, having performed worst in RADP execution.
Among the big budget-holders, the roads and highways division, the third-largest holder of development funds, performed worst as it executed only 70.96 per cent of its Tk 280.27 billion outlay of the RADP of FY 2024.
The Health Services Division, having the 7th-biggest development budget, executed only 76.65 per cent of its Tk 93.61-billion outlay in the last fiscal.
The Shipping Ministry, holding the 10th-largest ADP allocation, implemented 73.59 per cent of its Tk 68.37 billion outlay and the Bridges Division spent 79.56 per cent of its Tk 76.70 billion RADP outlay last year.
A senior IMED official says this is "unfortunate" that some big ministries and agencies like the roads, health, shipping, and bridges division have been failing to execute their projects against the annual target, resulting in lower ADP implementation over the years.
"The public ministries and agencies have been failing to improve their capacity over the years even after repeated reminders to them for expediting the development works. It's unfortunate," the official told the FE correspondent.
Following the slow progress, the PC in March revised the ADP for the FY2024 down to Tk 2.54 trillion from the original amount of Tk 2.74 trillion for implementing 1,657 development projects.
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