Status of ongoing projects sought for preparing next year\\\'s ADP

Syful Islam | Published: March 07, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The economic relations division (ERD) has requested ministries and departments to submit detailed status of their ongoing and newly-approved foreign-funded projects to help it start preparing the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the next fiscal year (FY) 2015-16, officials said.
They were asked to submit the information by the second week of this month. This is necessary for assessing the project assistance need in the next fiscal, they added.
While preparing the ADP for the new fiscal year, the rate of implementation of the projects during July-February period of this year will be taken into consideration, the ERD said in a recent letter to the ministries.
Officials said during the last 10 years, the size of ADPs went up by 10 per cent to 15 per cent annually, on an average. The next ADP may also see a similar rise, but it will depend on the rate of implementation of development projects this fiscal, they said.Â Â
Finance Secretary Mahbub Ahmed told the FE the size of the next budget would be bigger than the current one since the government's expenditure will see a big rise in next fiscal.
He said implementation of new pay-scale for government employees and funding of some big development projects, especially the Padma Multipurpose Bridge, will enlarge the budget.
Mr Ahmed said the rate of implementation of this fiscal year's ADP, despite being bigger in size compared to the previous one, remains almost the same until now. The other economic indicators are also in the positive territory.
He said the next ADP will also be bigger than the current one in keeping with the target of graduating the economy to a middle-income one by 2021.
During the July-January period of the current fiscal year, the government agencies spent 32 per cent of the ADP, 1.0 per cent lower than that of the corresponding period of last fiscal year, data from IMED (Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division) reveals.
They spent Tk 271.63 billion in seven months of current fiscal out of Tk 803.15 billion ADP.
Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, felt that the government should take into consideration factors such as challenges in financing projects, foreign aid flow, financing of mega projects like Padma bridge from its own exchequer, and benchmark of raising the size of ADP for the new outlay.
He said perennially there have been structural problems with the ADP. "Many projects included in the ADPs never get adequate allocation and remain unimplemented for years."
Dr Bhattacharya said there exists a total chaotic situation in the ADP. "Some projects see cost escalation every year but are not implemented even though those are priority ones."
He also said this year's ADP implementation had the slowest start. The pace became even slower in the second quarter.
"The government prepares a big-size ADP every year, cuts it by 20 to 25 per cent at the last stage and implements around 95 per cent of revised ADP hurriedly which does not ensure value for money," Dr Bhattacharya added.
He questioned the benchmark while raising the size of the ADP every year by around 10 to 15 per cent.
Â syful-islam@outlook.com