Not a single penny was spent by two government agencies from their development-budget allocations in four months of the current fiscal, sources say, largely for election-year inertia.
Six other ministries' performances were also found bleak, failing to cross 5.0-percent budget spenders' bracket in spending from the total Tk2.74 trillion worth of 2023-24 Annual Development Programme (ADP).
An FE analysis has found that the Internal Resources Division (IRD) and the Public Service Commission (PSC) showing a clean sheet-the two fully failed to defray their allocations in the July-October period.
Shipping Ministry, the ninth-largest development fund-holder, Land Ministry, Defence Ministry, Law and Justice Division, Foreign Ministry, and Chittagong Hill Tracts Ministry implemented less than 5.0 per cent of their ADP money, Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) data showed.
Meanwhile, average ADP-execution rate of all the 58 government ministries and agencies was 11.54 per cent during the period under review.
The FE analysis has found the IRD under the Ministry of Finance (MoF) implementing six projects for which the government allocated Tk3.18 billion. Interestingly, though, the division, which is entrusted to a crucial task of reforming the revenue management of the country, had failed to spend even a penny till October although it has been implementing six important projects.
The PSC has got Tk 300 million for implementing one project. But the commission also couldn't open its expenditure account. A "zero" progress is made on its lone scheme.
The Ministry of Shipping has got Tk 99.33 billion worth of allocations in the current ADP for its ongoing 32 projects. The ministry implemented only 3.77 per cent of the ADP, 7.77-percentage- point lower than the average ADP implementation rate at 11.54 per cent.
The Ministry of Defence, having the 26th-largest ADP outlay, has obtained Tk14.35 billion for funding 18 ongoing projects in the current FY2024. Out of the allocations, the ministry spent a peanut 2.98 per cent of its allocation.
The Chittagong Hill Tracts Ministry, the 35th-largest ADP budget-holder, has got Tk 7.49 billion for its 16 development propjets to be implemented in the backwoods. But it implemented 4.15 per cent of its ADP-- 6.39-percentage-point lower than the average ADP execution rate, according to the IMED data.
The government has allocated Tk6.925 billion in the ADP for six ongoing projects of the land ministry, which holds the 37th-largest development-budget allocation. However, it had executed only 3.07 per cent of its ADP in the four-month period.
The foreign ministry has executed 3.29 per cent of Tk934.8-million allocation for its seven ongoing projects.
The law and justice division spent 5.0 per cent of its Tk1.64-billion allocation for the ongoing five projects during the first four months of the current fiscal year.
Besides, many other ministries had also performed bleak as they implemented less than 11.54 per cent-the average implementation rate of the Tk2.74-trillion ADP outlay--during the first four months of the current FY2024.
Implementation of development projects in Bangladesh usually goes slow in the initial period and goes great guns at the fag-end of the financial year, but economists this time would like to attribute sluggishness to such an extent to election-year hustle and bustle.
A senior IMED official explains the slow pace of budget execution and their prodding. "We always pursue the project-implementing agencies for expediting their project execution. But some of them cannot bring expected result."
They also sit with the ministries and divisions quarterly or half-yearly every year and review their execution performance aiming to streamline the implementation work.
A Member of the Planning Commission told the FE that capacity is a big problem in the way to implementation of projects by some ministries.
"Although we allocate those ministries and agencies adequate funds every year, they failed to implement their projects in time. It also affects the overall ADP execution," he said, preferring not to be quoted by name.
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