Corruption hinders ADP implementation: minister

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has acknowledged that the people do not receive benefits of the government’s annual development programme (ADP) because of corruption. ‘We spend Tk 800 billion on the ADP. Where does the money go? How many years does it take to change the face of the country?’ he said at a discussion in Dhaka on Thursday. ‘There’s corruption and waster too. Moreover, we often fail to take decisions at the right time. This is the reason why the country is not getting benefits of government spending,’ he said. Mustafa Kamal, an Awami League MP from Comilla, cited expansion work of the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway into 4-lane as an example of the snail-paced work. He stated there were many reasons for this. ‘It’s not that development works are not being done. But it’s done at a slow pace,’ he said. About coal, the minister said ‘We haven't been able to extract coals even after 40 years of independence. There's a stock of coal worth $47 billion. Despite suffering from power crisis, we have been unable to decide on a way to extract coal due to various reasons,’ he added, according to bdnews24.com.