The government has failed to accelerate project execution even after the return of normalcy following the bout of turbulence centring on the January 5 national election. It was able to spend only 38 per cent of Tk 658.72 billion development budget in July-February period, officials said Friday.
Planning Commission (PC) officials said the project executing agencies had spent only five percentage points more than the spending rate (33 per cent) during July-January period of the current fiscal year (FY), which was inadequate to overcome the poor implementation performance.
The government utilised Tk 252.18 billion, 38 per cent of the total ADP allocation, in July-Feb period of the current financial year 2013-14, six percentage points lower than that in the last fiscal year, the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) data showed.
The ministries and agencies of the government spent 44 per cent of Tk 550 billion Annual Development Programme (ADP) in the same period (July to February) last FY 2012-`13.
"The government ministries and agencies are so inefficient that their ADP implementation nature remains the same as the previous years," said a senior Planning Commission (PC) official.
Although the PC is trying to speed up the implementation, the agencies are showing the same performance as in the past years, he told the FE.
The IMED earlier claimed that the political turmoil had hit the development work of the government hard, affecting the overall project implementation.
A senior IMED official said some bigger development fund holders have performed the worst, which affected the ADP implementation in the current FY 2013-14.
He said the Bridge Division, the 3rd largest fund holder, is the worst performer in executing the development budget because of its failure to implement the US$ 2.9 billion Padma Bridge project.
The division has spent only Tk 3.63 billion, five per cent of its Tk 68.88 billion outlay, during July-February period of the FY 2014, he told the FE.
IMED data showed that the Housing and Public Works Ministry and Power Division had also been placed on the list of the poor performers of the government for their lackadaisical fund utilisation rate as they spent 13 per cent and 33 per cent of their funds respectively.
The Local Government Division (LGD), the highest development fund holder, however, has performed better during the July-Feb period of the current FY 2014, as it has spent Tk 58.40 billion, 55 per cent of its total allocations, IMED officials said.
Meanwhile, the government ministries and divisions have shown their highest capability in spending the funds allocated from the internal resources rather than those from the external sources.
According to IMED data, the implementing agencies have spent 40 per cent or Tk 166.82 billion of Tk 413.09 billion allocations from the internal resources, while only 35 per cent or Tk 85.36 billion of Tk 245.63 billion allocations from the external resources in July-Feb period in this fiscal.
The poor spending rate from the external resources (project aid) has affected the overall development budget execution, the IMED official said.
General Economic Division (GED) Member Professor Shamsul Alam said the utilisation of the development budget outlay would have to be increased to achieve the target of 7.2 per cent economic growth this fiscal year.
If the development budget is not utilised properly, the economic growth target will be hampered and the mission to become a middle-income country will be elusive, he told the FE.
