When delays are deliberate

Shamsul Huq Zahid | Published: February 05, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The problem of cost escalation in relation to public sector projects, particularly the major ones, has become a chronic one and the country's economy has been paying too heavy a price on this account.
For instance, according to a report published in the FE Friday last, the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has sought from the government an additional fund of Tk.507 million for constructing a part of the Dhaka City Circular Road project. The original allocation for the project was Tk.386 million. So the cost of the project in question has gone up by 131 per cent. Â
The executive committee of the National Economic Council approved the project in December 2008. The project was scheduled to be implemented between January 2009 and December 2010. The RHD, which has reportedly spent 36 per cent of the original allocation, has sought five more years for completing the project along with the additional amount of development funds.
One can be least assured that, if the Planning Commission (PC) approves the RHD proposal for extra fund and extended time, a few more identical proposals would come from the implementing agency in the future and the final cost of the project would be a staggering one.
However, this is nothing unique. All the major projects now under implementation, including the much-talked about Dhaka-ChittagongÂ and Dhaka-Mymensingh four-lane highway projects, have already gone though similar developments. There is no guarantee that the implementing agencies will not make a few more requests for additional funds or extension of time--- factors that are very much interlinked--- to the government.
The government has already approved a number of high-profile projects, including the Padma Bridge, metro rail and bus rapid transit involving a substantial amount of public investment. In the event of their cost escalation, which remains highly probable, the government might find itself in trouble, in terms of mobilising the additional funds.
Interestingly, the RHD, one of the major spenders of the public sector development fund, is a habitual seeker of additional funds and extension of time for project implementation. The agency is also a highly graft-ridden one since the opportunities for indulging in the vice are enormous in its development project execution process.
Allegations have it that officials at the centre and also at the field-level of a good number of agencies responsible for implementing development projects deliberately create problems, in collusion with the contractors or suppliers, to delay the project. Their basic purpose is to demand additional fund and grab a part of the same mutually.
Delays in project implementation and consequent cost escalation do give rise to problems in the case of donor-funded projects as the donors do not like this kind of unhealthy development. Moreover, in most cases, donors refuse to increase their part of financing and it is the government which spends the additional amount of funds from the taxpayers' money to compensate for the delays.
The government has an agency, named, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) for monitoring implementation of public sector projects. However, the IMED has turned out to be an ineffective entity, mainly because of lack of manpower and necessary logistics. It is not possible on its part to examine, in details, the various aspects of implementation of thousands of projects under different ministries and other agencies.
The problem of cost escalation of public sector projects and the irregularities involved in the process have gone too far and the policymakers cannot anymore overlook the same. In fact, the issue deserved their attention long ago.
The factors that push up project costs are more or less known to all concerned. Yet the problems should be explored even deeper. A commission or a national level committee, comprising development experts from both private and public sectors, needs to be constituted in this connection.
It could be an interesting piece of information if the commission can make an estimate on the funds spent on public sector projects, in addition to their original allocations since independence. The amount might be enough to finance more than a dozen bridges like the one over the river Padma. And the money grabbed illegally by officials, contractors and suppliers could, however, be anybody's guess.
Â Â Â zahidmar10@gmail.com