Project directors have identified land acquisition complexities and frequent change of officials as the major reasons behind the slow progress of the development projects, officials said Thursday.
The Project Directors (PDs) were speaking at a meeting at the Planning Commission with Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair. Mr Kamal called the PDs for the consultation meeting in a bid to overcome the hurdles on way to speedy project implementation.
The minister sat with nearly half of the PDs of some 1,287 projects under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) Thursday, the final day of the two-day consultation meeting in Dhaka.
The first meeting was held on February 15 with the rest of the PDs.
"We are in trouble with the government's complex land acquisition system. In most of the cases, we can't acquire land in time maintaining the government schedule properly. It causes delay in execution of the projects," said a PD of a road development project.
"I have requested the Planning Minister that (as a policy maker) he should work on relaxing the present land acquisition system," the PD told the FE requesting anonymity.
Meeting sources said many PDs identified 'frequent changes of the project officials' as one of the key reasons for delaying the execution.
They also claimed that lower fund release in the subsequent years, tight monitoring system of the development partners, complex approval process for the project aid and internal funds are also the reasons for implementation delays.
"First, I need approval of tender documents from the fund-providing donor agency. I also need to take endorsement on the short-listed bidders' list from it. Then I need to take approval from the donor before awarding the contract. Then I need to maintain several processes to receive the confirmed foreign aid. This complex and lengthy process is affecting my project execution in time," said a PD under the power division.
The Planning Minister asked the ministries to set up a Management Information System (MIS) in their planning wings to update progress and obstacles of the ongoing projects.
"The MIS will help us identify the loopholes and hurdles on way to execution," said Mr Kamal.
He also directed the ministries to create 'PD pool' at their ministries so that it could choose experienced officials for specific projects to streamline their execution.
The Planning Minister also asked the PDs to enhance their communication capacity with the development partners to expedite implementation of the foreign-funded projects.
"If you fail to implement the foreign-aided projects in time, the fund will be withdrawn by the donors. So, work for expediting the project execution to release the funds," he said.
About the fund allocations for the Padma Bridge project, Mr Kamal said there is no possibility to cut the allocations this financial year 2014-15 from the bridge project.
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