Govt may outsource dev project monitoring

The government plans to outsource the job of monitoring and supervision of projects implemented under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) from the next year with a view to improving quality as well as bringing back transparency and accountability.

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal disclosed this when the participants at a budget analysis made queries about the unusual delay in project execution and the poor quality of projects.

They also raised questions about the capacity of Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) and the extent of coordination among concerned ministries and divisions. Lack of capacity to handle the projects, they said, resulted in the creation of white elephants that tend produce negative results.

"You are spending a lot of money, but projects are not being implemented properly," said Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Chairman Professor Rehman Sobhan, who stressed the need for strengthening the capacity of IMED as well as independent evaluation of the development projects.

"Most of the works are done from April and onwards, mainly in monsoon," said Prof Sobhan adding that even the government does not know what is being done with the money.

The local think-tank, CPD, organised the post-budget dialogue "Analysis of the National Budget FY 2015-16" at the city's Lakeshore Hotel on Saturday. It was attended by a large number of economists, researchers, businessmen, academics and officials from government and non-government organisations.

Most of the speakers at the meeting pointed out that around 50 per cent of the ADP is implemented in the first 10 months of a financial year, and there is a rush in the remaining two months causing wastage of public money and hampering the quality of works.

The minister pointed out that measures would be taken to check misuse of fund and ensure proper implementation of the projects.

"No project director will be given the responsibility of more than one project," said Mr Mostafa Kamal adding that training will be imparted to officials concerned to raise their efficiency level and even the bargaining ability to handle the issues of foreign assistance.

Although many of the speakers at the dialogue identified revenue collection as one of the major challenges for the next fiscal year, the planning minister sounded quite confident about reaching the revenue target.

He said reforms have been carried out in the National Board of Revenue (NBR), adding manpower of the NBR has been doubled and officials there have been trained. "We can get an additional amount of Tk 111.62 billion from NBR due to the reforms," said the minister giving a break-up of deficit financing.

Portraying the government's success in various macroeconomic indicators, the planning minister pointed out that the government will present a Tk 2.5 trillion ADP outlay within next three years.

"The ADP outlay was only Tk 215 billion during the period of BNP," said the minister posing a oblique reference to BNP chairperson's adviser Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, who at the function bitterly criticised the government for 'plundering' national resources.

Mr Cowdhury, also a former commerce minister, in his speech said that the country's economic growth has become stagnant at around 6.0 per cent which was around 7.0 per cent in the FY07. He accused the government of destroying economic institutions.

He strongly criticised the government for setting aside Tk 50 billion for recapitalising the state-owned banks saying it is totally wastage of public money and plundering of national resources. "The cliques are plundering money from banks and capital market and the government is recapitalising those to facilitate more plunder," said the former minister.

He lamented that despite being identified, the culprits behind the stock market scam are moving freely and through recapitalising the banking sector the government is giving a wrong signal.

Replying to queries from the audience regarding various demands like district budget, women budget and child budget State Minister for Finance M A Mannan, who attended the programme as the special guest, said the budget is hugely misused in Bangladesh, which no government could avoid. He termed it a 'systematic misuse'. He said the government should fix its priority first in the budget.

"Prioritisation is completely missing in the budget," said the minister adding that the budget is for all, not for a particular group. It serves the interest of all.

"The districts do not have any government and they do not have any income. Then how do you expect district budget?" asked the minister.

Adviser to the former caretaker government Dr. Mirza Azizul Islam also expressed his doubt about achieving the revenue target which he termed unrealistic because the recent historical data shows that it will be difficult.

Moderated by Professor Rehman Sobhan, the programme was addressed among others by Bangladesh Bank Chief Economist Biru Paksha Paul, ICB Managing director Md. Fayekuzzaman, former Tariff Commission chairman Dr. M Mozibur Rahman, BGMEA president Md. Atiqul Islam and Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BWCCI) president Selima Ahmad.

CPD Executive Director Dr Mustafizur Rahman presented the keynote paper on the subject showing how challenging attainment of the revenue target in fiscal 2015-16 will be. He identified poor fiscal planning, sluggish private investment, domestic borrowing, poor revenue generation, poor utilisation of concessional financing like project aid as some of the major challenges the economy will confront in the next fiscal.

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