Govt to face trouble in executing projects

The government will face severe difficulties in implementing its nearly 1,200 ongoing development projects as those will require Tk 171.21 billion for execution in the next three fiscal years (FYs), officials said. The planning ministry has already informed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the requirements for funds against the ongoing projects. A top government official said: "We have informed the Prime Minister that if the government does not become alert at this moment, it will be difficult to ensure the fiscal balance." He said the government will find it very hard to mobilise such a large amount of money through the national budgets to implement the ongoing projects under the Annual Development Programme (ADP). "In addition to 915 regular projects, the government has so far approved 270 new projects, involving nearly Tk 700 billion which will entail a heavy public expenditure burden," he said requesting for anonymity. The official said the government is approving eight projects on an average every week without making a proper assessment of the fund required and its mobilisation for implementing those. A planning commission official said if the government does not approve any new project, the ongoing 1,185 ones will require Tk 674.91 billion in the next fiscal year (FY2012), Tk 597.52 billion in FY2013 and Tk 439.69 billion in FY2014. "Since the government's annual budget allocation for the ADP is still below Tk 400 billion, extreme doubts will persist about how the required amount of funds will be made available for the execution of the projects," he told the FE. In FY2012, the government will have to provide funding support to the tune of Tk 420.05 billion from its budgetary resources and the rest, Tk 254.86 billion from the external sources for implementing 1,185 projects. In FY2013, a total of Tk 372.63 billion fund will be required from the budgetary resources and Tk 224.89 billion, from the foreign resources. In FY2014, the government will need Tk 275.76 billion from the domestic resources and Tk 163.93 billion, from the external resources for implementing the ongoing projects. A planning commission official said: "The government is likely to fall into a deep trouble in the coming years as more projects will be approved. Those will require additional funds, besides the estimated costs of Tk 171.21 billion." He said the government's highest economic policy making body - Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) - has already approved or revised about 700 projects in its more than two years' tenure. "We have already included about 250 fresh projects in the revised ADP. Many of the projects have been approved in political consideration," another planning ministry official told the FE. Fresh projects, undertaken on political consideration, usually encourage misuses of public funds by the implementing agencies, he said requesting anonymity. The new projects are those that are fully either put in the original ADP without fund allocations or fresh ones, without prior approval by the ECNEC. The government in the current fiscal slated the size of the ADP to Tk 351.30 billion from the original Tk 385 billion, due to poor project implementation performance by different executing agencies. "We have provided clear guidelines to the ministries and agencies not to propose any fresh projects which are not very important and have no firm funding line-up arrangement. But many new projects are not all that important at this stage," he said. The official said, "we always encourage the project implementing ministries and agencies to execute the approved projects included in the original ADP in order to help prevent any misuse of public funds.