ADP execution fails to shake off COVID-time inertia

Development-budget execution in in the country decelerates as its rate in the past fiscal was 9.0-percentage- point lower than previous financial year's, officials said Thursday, despite a last-minute spending spree.
Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) data show that all the public agencies executed 84.16 per cent of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) in the FY 2022-23.
The rate of project implementation was 92.74 per cent in the previous fiscal, according to the IMED data.
An IMED official vents his despair over the slowdown. "It is regrettable that the project-implementation rate in the last FY2023 was close to the rates during the Covid-affected FY2020 and FY2021," he says.
In FY2020, the ADP implementation was 80.39 per cent and in FY2021 it was 82.11 per cent by official count.
The IMED official said in the last month of the past financial year, June, the execution rate in public-works projects was 22.44 per cent-but, again, much lower than the rate at 27.90 per cent in the same period of FY2022.
Government ministries and agencies spent Tk 1.99 trillion or 84.16 per cent of the Tk 2.36-trillion ADP in the just-concluded financial year, the IMED stocktaking shows.
In the same period of FY2022, the government agencies spent Tk 2.036 trillion--92.74 per cent of the Tk 2.196 trillion worth of development recipe.
A Planning Ministry official says, "Although the ADP implementation recovered from shocks in the FY2022 from the dismal picture over the previous two consecutive years-FY2020 and in FY2021--for the Covid impact, it is going to perform bleak at the end this fiscal year, too."
The official mentions that ADP implementation in the last one decade has hovered around 90 per cent to 95 per cent. But this year, it has performed worst except for the two Covid-hit fiscals of FY2020 and FY2021.
An FE analysis has found the worst performance by the health services division-the 7th-largest budget- holder-once again in the last FY2023 as it spent only 68.20 per cent during the July 2022-to-June 2023 period.
Some other big ministries and agencies, including Shipping Ministry, Water Resources Ministry, Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Division, Local Government Division, Primary and Mass Education Ministry, showed bleak performance in ADP implementation.
The 11th-largest development budget-holder- Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Division-executed only 71.40 per cent of its Tk 72.18 billion allocation.
Water Resources Ministry-the 6th-largest stakeholder-is positioned 3rd -worst ADP budget user as it spent only 75.88 per cent of its Tk11.33 billion allocation in the 12 months of FY2023.
The 13th-biggest development fund-holder, Shipping Ministry, spent 77.20 per cent of its allocation, the Primary and Mass Education Ministry 82.45 per cent and Local Government Division 81.99 per cent of their respective ADP portions.
However, the Energy and Mineral Resources Division performed best during the Jul-Jun period of the last FY2023 as it spent 103.04 per cent of its ADP allocation.
During the 12-month period, the Science and Technology Ministry, Bridges Division, Power Division, Railway Ministry, and the Road Transport and Highways Division also performed better with implementation of 90.03 per cent, 96.67 per cent, 90.46 per cent, 93.06 per cent, 91.14 per cent and 68.20 per cent respectively.
Meanwhile, the government ministries and agencies spent higher funds from their project-aid outlays than the government funds from the internal resources (GoB) in the last FY2023 from the total Tk2.36- trillion ADP outlay.
They spent Tk 673.44 billion or 90.40 per cent of the Tk745 billion worth of project-aid outlay during the July-June period last fiscal.
However, they spent Tk 1.25 trillion or 81.77 per cent of the Tk1.53-trillion allocation from the GoB, the IMED data showed.
Primarily, the government framed a Tk 2.56-trillion ADP. Later, it was revised downward to Tk2.36 trillion during the 3rd quarter of the last fiscal due to the failure of the government agencies in implementing their target project works.

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