Only 9.0pc of Tk 25b ADP spent in Q1

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FE Report
Only nine per cent of Tk256 billion annual development programme (ADP) was spent during first quarter (July-September) of the current fiscal despite a number of measures taken by the present caretaker government, officials said Wednesday.
The development programme implementing ministries and divisions spent only Tk 23.88 billion during July-September period, a senior planning ministry official told the FE.
"The caretaker government has taken dozens of measures to speed up the implementation process and remove inefficiency of the implementing agencies aiming to improve the quality in public fund spending," the official said.
The senior official said further tougher measures might come from the chief adviser at the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) at a meeting scheduled for today (Thursday) against the backdrop of poor ADP implementation.
The large 10 ministries and divisions, which were allocated 79 per cent of total ADP fund, have also performed badly this year as those have spent only 10 per cent of their total outlay during the first three months of FY09, he said.
During the period they have spent only Tk 20.27 billion.
Among the major 10 ministries, the education ministry is on the top of the list of best performers spending 17 per cent of its fund allocation for the year followed by 13 per cent each by power division and local government division and 12 per cent each by agriculture, and primary and mass education ministries.
The development programme implementation rate in the first quarter of the last FY08 was also poor as the agencies spent only 7.4 per cent of their allocated fund under the original ADP.
The expenditure in the same period of FY07 was 11 per cent, in FY06 11 per cent and in FY05 it was 10 per cent.
When asked about the poor performance, a senior official in the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) said inefficiency and delay in pubic procurement and complex process in fund release by the donors are the main reasons for poor ADP implementation.
A good number of ministries, divisions and agencies have not been able to spent more than one per cent of their ADP fund in the first three months, planning ministry official said.