ADB to review its aided projects worth $3.8b
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
FHM Humayan Kabir
Asian Development Bank will review dozens of its key infrastructure and development projects in Bangladesh amid concerns that government agencies have failed to spend billions of dollars it lent for the schemes. The review is seen as a key test for the finance ministry and the government's project executing agencies two weeks after they passed similar assessment by another anti-poverty lender, World Bank. A finance ministry official said the ADB would review at least 40 of its funded projects, for which it had committed US$3.8 billion in soft-credit over the last one decade. Officials of the Manila-based lender are now in the capital and they would review the progress and try to "resolve execution impediments" of the projects on Wednesday and Thursday, he said. "It will be a tripartite meeting. Economic Relations Division, project implementing agencies and the ADB will hold face-to-face discussion to review 40 ADB-funded schemes," a senior ERD official told the FE. During the review, ADB officials would also assess the impact, implementation status and results of the schemes and whether they would achieve their desired goals in time. According to ERD officials, ADB is concerned over unexplained and unnecessary delays in some of its funded projects and has demanded speedy execution. "Some ADB schemes have been so slow that the government's implementing agencies could not even complete 50 per cent of their work. ADB is unhappy at these projects' implementation status," said an official. The $100 million ADB-funded railway sector investment programme and $47 million skill development projects have made only five per cent progress despite completing their four-year term, he said. The government agencies have executed only 23 per cent of ADB's $85 million urban government and infrastructure improvement project and 27 per cent of the $147 million Dhaka water supply development project. The ERD official said during the meeting ADB officials would also evaluate the progress of the "action plan" it set for specific projects at the first review meeting in November last year. "Our failures to execute the key development schemes properly and according to time-bound plan have repeatedly hampered aid disbursement by the ADB," the official said. In the first half of the current fiscal 2010-11, ADB has disbursed $304 million credit to its ongoing projects in Bangladesh.
Asian Development Bank will review dozens of its key infrastructure and development projects in Bangladesh amid concerns that government agencies have failed to spend billions of dollars it lent for the schemes. The review is seen as a key test for the finance ministry and the government's project executing agencies two weeks after they passed similar assessment by another anti-poverty lender, World Bank. A finance ministry official said the ADB would review at least 40 of its funded projects, for which it had committed US$3.8 billion in soft-credit over the last one decade. Officials of the Manila-based lender are now in the capital and they would review the progress and try to "resolve execution impediments" of the projects on Wednesday and Thursday, he said. "It will be a tripartite meeting. Economic Relations Division, project implementing agencies and the ADB will hold face-to-face discussion to review 40 ADB-funded schemes," a senior ERD official told the FE. During the review, ADB officials would also assess the impact, implementation status and results of the schemes and whether they would achieve their desired goals in time. According to ERD officials, ADB is concerned over unexplained and unnecessary delays in some of its funded projects and has demanded speedy execution. "Some ADB schemes have been so slow that the government's implementing agencies could not even complete 50 per cent of their work. ADB is unhappy at these projects' implementation status," said an official. The $100 million ADB-funded railway sector investment programme and $47 million skill development projects have made only five per cent progress despite completing their four-year term, he said. The government agencies have executed only 23 per cent of ADB's $85 million urban government and infrastructure improvement project and 27 per cent of the $147 million Dhaka water supply development project. The ERD official said during the meeting ADB officials would also evaluate the progress of the "action plan" it set for specific projects at the first review meeting in November last year. "Our failures to execute the key development schemes properly and according to time-bound plan have repeatedly hampered aid disbursement by the ADB," the official said. In the first half of the current fiscal 2010-11, ADB has disbursed $304 million credit to its ongoing projects in Bangladesh.