Govt for inclusive mechanism to avert waste of public money

FE Report | Published: June 16, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal Sunday acknowledged waste of public money on account of 'delay in project execution', saying that the government is trying to find out a comprehensive mechanism to prevent it.
"Once the mechanism is adopted, it will help lessen the existing waste of public fund spent under development projects," the planning minister told reporters at a press meet at his ministry at Agargaon in the city.
The minister, however, did not go into details about the wastage of public money.
Expressing satisfaction over the execution rate of Annual Development Programme (ADP) in the outgoing fiscal year (FY), 2013-14, he said 67 per cent of the revised ADP outlay (Tk 600 billion) has already been spent in July-May period of the fiscal, up by 2.0 per cent from the same in the previous fiscal.
"In the first 11 months of the outgoing fiscal Tk 399.92 billion was spent, compared to Tk 362.98 billion during the same period a year ago."
About the issue of employment, Mr Kamal said more than 1.9 million employment opportunities are projected to be created in the upcoming fiscal, with a major contribution from the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
He said nearly 10 million people came under employment coverage over the last five years.
Terming the employment creation as an outstanding performance, Dr. Shamsul Alam, Member of General Economic Division (GED) of the Planning Commission, said there is an economic calculation that if Gross Domestic Product (GDP) size increases by 1.0 per cent, 250,000 jobs opportunities are created.
"We've a projection of 7.0 per cent growth in the next fiscal, FY 2014-15.
More than 1.6 million people will come under employment coverage with the estimation, and simultaneously 250,000 more people are planned to be sent abroad with jobs. So, over 1.9 million fresh people will get jobs facility," he added.
Talking about the investment, the planning minister said the investment-GDP ratio in the outgoing FY is more than 28 per cent, which is not bad comparing with the countries like Thailand (22 per cent) and Singapore (around 27 per cent).
"I don't want to make any comment over the observation made by some institutions about investment and GDP growth."
He said the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) has so far approved 203 projects, involving a total of Tk 1.19 trillion.
Of the amount, the government will provide the major portion of Tk 620 billion, implementing agencies will give Tk 36.98 billion and remaining Tk 533.09 billion will come in the form of project assistance.
Citing a recent decision at the procurement committee, the minister said decision has been taken to start feasibility study for two key projects, including construction of elevated expressway on Dhaka-Chittagong economic corridor and underground rail in the capital.
"Financing will not be a problem, as agencies like Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Chinese government assured us of providing necessary funds for the projects," he added.