ADP implementation 4-yr low in Q1

The pace of execution of the country's over Tk 803-billion annual development programme (ADP) in July-September period hit a four-year low at 9.0 per cent, official sources said.
Such sloth in development works in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (FY) is learnt to have frustrated top government authorities.
Government officials concerned attributed so poor performance to slower progress on Dhaka elevated expressway (DEE) and some other projects.
However, such deceleration of pace is not new altogether -- the ADP execution was the same, 9.0 per cent, in the July-September period of 2010-11.
Usually, the rate of ADP implementation hovers between 12 and 13 per cent in the first quarter of each fiscal year, and then goes at fastest pace in the last quarter -- March-June period.  
The ADP-execution rate was 11 per cent in July-September in 2013-14, 13 per cent in the same period in 2012-13 and 11 per cent in the corresponding period in 2011-12.
Sources at the finance division said the government is worried over the slower performance on the development budget as this might affect overall budget execution.
The Ministry of Finance is likely to top it, on a note of concern, in its first-quarter financial report to be placed in parliament sometime in December.
However, it looked like a blessing in disguise as many officials involved with the ADP fund release told the FE that the poor rate of execution resulted in lesser borrowing by the government from banking sources.
They also said net sales of savings instruments also helped out, lowering government's bank borrowings.
During the past July-October period, government borrowed Tk 89.80 billion from the banking system, down from Tk 99.60 billion, according to the latest statistics of Bangladesh Bank (BB).
Savings instruments worth Tk 68.20 billion were sold in the first quarter -- a figure which already accounts for about 75 per cent of the target for the whole year.
Sources cited slow progress on the elevated-expressway project as one of the key factors that decelerated the ADP performance. The government in its budget has allocated Tk 60 billion for spending on the elevated expressway during the whole fiscal year.
It is estimated that the expressway will eat up around Tk 1.5 billion in the first quarter. But the government expenditure was just Tk 2.8 million for the project during the July-September period.
Sources associated with the elevated-expressway project said it did not progress as planned as it had changed its alignments many times.
There were many ministries that also failed to execute their respective programmes in the quarter.
The ministries of industries, cabinet division and information and communication technology spent only 1.0 per cent against their allocation.
The spending under the bridges division, the implementing agency of the Padma bridge, was in line with the overall execution rate of 9.0 per cent in the three months ending September.
The total spending in the period under review was Tk 70.25 billion, excluding self-financed projects of the total ADP outlay of Tk 803.15 billion for 2014-15.
Spending from local currency taka slipped to 10 per cent during the period against 12 per cent in the corresponding period in 2013-14.
Foreign fund utilisation in the period also fell: only 6.0 per cent of project assistance was put to work.
Project assistance funded by the overseas lenders ate Tk 17.44 billion in the period against 19.61 billion in the corresponding period in the last fiscal year.
However, there was substantial growth in implementing self-financed projects. The rate grew by 10 per cent this past July-September period against 3.0 per cent in the same period in 2013-14.
jasimharoon@yahoo.com