Some important ministries worst ADP performers in July-Sept

FHM Humayan Kabir | Published: October 21, 2017 22:38:55

The government spent 10 per cent of its development budget in the first quarter (Q1) of this fiscal, one percentage point up from the last corresponding period, although some vital sectors fell behind.
In the front row among the worst performers are Railway Ministry, Bridges Division, Primary and Mass Education Ministry, Health Services Division, and Housing and Public Works Ministry with respective development spending of only 1.85 per cent, 3.81 per cent. 4.02 per cent, 5.76 per cent and 6.46 per cent, official said Saturday.
The ministries and agencies spent Tk 167.55 billion or 10 per cent of the total Tk 1.64 trillion Annual Development Programme (ADP) outlay in the July-September period of the current financial year (FY) 2017-18, according to data available with planning ministry's Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED).
In the corresponding period of last FY2017, the government had utilised 9.0 per cent of the total Tk 1.23 trillion worth of ADP outlay.
A senior Planning Commission (PC) official said the government agencies spent higher funds (13 per cent) from the available external resources, resulting in a little better ADP-implementation performance in the Q1 this fiscal than that of the same period in the last fiscal.
He, however, said since many of the 10 highest development-budget receivers under the current ADP had performed poorly, the fund-utilisation rate still stayed below government's expectation.
Development experts said various steps taken by the PC so far failed to yield results in development-project implementing.
The PC official said they had been supervising and monitoring the ADP implementation since the beginning of the year. "But the initiative has so far failed to bring the expected results."
They are, however, hopeful of getting a big boost in project implementation in the remaining nine months (Oct-Jun) of the current financial year as the government is very cautious in this regard.
According to the IMED data, the implementing agencies spent 9.0 per cent of Tk 955.15 billion allocations from internal resources while 13 per cent of Tk 77.72 billion from the allocated external resources in the July-Sep period.
Besides, the state-owned autonomous and semi-autonomous agencies spent Tk 8.79 billion or 11 per cent of their total outlay of Tk 81.54 billion in the current development budget.
IMED officials found Science and Technology Ministry as the worst performer in executing the development budget as it spent only 0.04 per cent of its Tk 105.02 billion outlay, far below the 10 per cent overall ADP execution during the Q1of the current fiscal.
The Power Division, the highest development fund-gobbler, however, stood at the top in terms of spending followed by Road Transport and Highways Division during Q1 of the current FY2018, the IMED officials said.
Both the line ministries spent 29 per cent and 17 per cent of their respective funds allocated in the current ADP.
kabirhumayan10@gmail.com