Government agencies have failed to implement even half of their planned development works in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year (FY) 2023-24, according to officials.
This marks the lowest development project execution in three years for the July-April period, they added.
Ministries and agencies only achieved 49.26 per cent of the revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) target of Tk 2.54 trillion during this period, show Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) data.
This compares to a rate of 50.33 per cent for the Tk 2.36 trillion RADP in the same period of FY 2023, according to IMED data released on Monday.
In the first 10 months, the government spent Tk 1.25 trillion, or 49.26 per cent of its allocated Tk 2.54 trillion RADP budget.
The ADP execution gained some momentum in March after a sluggish start to the fiscal year, according to IMED data.
The government agencies and ministries implemented 42.30 per cent of the Tk 2.756 trillion original ADP during July-March period of FY24, IMED data showed. This compares to 41.65 per cent achieved in the same period of FY 2023.
The ADP execution rate up to February (July-February) this year was the lowest in 14 years.
A Financial Express analysis found that several key ministries and agencies, including the health division, shipping ministry, Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and Ministry of Housing and Public Works, again underperformed in RADP execution during the July-April period of FY 2024.
Among these big budget holders, the shipping ministry executed only 33.58 per cent of its Tk 68.37 billion allocation in the current RADP. The Health Services Division managed just 37.33 per cent of its Tk 93.61 billion outlay.
The PMO spent 34.42 per cent of its Tk 38.82 billion allocation and the Ministry of Housing and Public Works spent 45.55 per cent of its Tk 60.82 billion allocation in the current fiscal year's RADP.
A senior IMED official said it has been disappointing that major offices like health, shipping, the PMO, and housing and public works continue to fall short of their annual project execution targets, contributing to the persistently low ADP implementation rate.
The Planning Commission and IMED officials said government ministries and agencies have not demonstrably improved their capacity over the fiscal year, despite repeated warnings from the Prime Minister and the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).
"Public ministries and agencies have been failing to improve their capacity over the years, even after repeated reminders to expedite development work. It is unfortunate," said a senior IMED official.
Following the slow progress of the ADP, the Planning Commission revised the current FY 2024 ADP down to Tk 2.54 trillion from the original Tk 2.74 trillion for the implementation of some 1,400 development projects.
Compared to FY2024, IMED data shows that ADP implementation rates for the July-April period were higher in previous fiscal years: 54.57 per cent in FY 2022, 49.09 per cent in FY 2021 and 49.13 per cent in FY 2020.
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