Efforts fail to shake agencies awake

Various official steps to enhance capacity of the government agencies have 'failed' to make any major headway, taking its toll on implementation of development projects, officials and development analysts said.
According to them, many public agencies are not only incapable of preparing project proposals, but their utilisation capacity is also inadequate.
The Planning Commission (PC) has been closely working with the line ministries and public agencies over the last few couple of years, but their project execution capacity has not increased, they told the FE.
PC, as part of its initiatives, has issued guidelines and enhanced monitoring and supervision for bringing dynamism in project execution process, they said.
However, the agencies fail to complete the targeted development work during the first half of a fiscal year (FY), and take a 'hurry-up' approach in the last quarter, thus affecting quality in development works and causing misuse of public funds, they added.
The government agencies have spent Tk 159.08 billion, only 20 per cent of the Tk 803.15 billion Annual Development Programme (ADP) during the first five months of the current FY, 2014-15.
In the same period of the previous fiscal, they spent only Tk 131.56 billion, 20 per cent of the Tk 658.72 billion ADP outlay.
The agencies have also failed to spend adequate foreign assistance in the same period (Jul-Nov) this fiscal, as the development partners disbursed fund worth US$902 million, only 24.64 percent of the actual target of $3.36 billion.In the same period of the previous fiscal, the development partners released $888 million worth of assistance, 27 percent of the $3.33 billion foreign aid target, the official data showed.
Officials said the government agencies have also shown a sluggish pace in execution of the large projects, including Tk 31.90 billion Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane road development project, Tk 7.73 billion Mogbazar-Mouchak flyover project, Rampal coal-based power plant project, $2.9 billion Padma Bridge project, and Indian $1.0 billion credit-supported projects.
A top official of PC said: "There is no improvement in capacity of the public agencies. Usually they implement around 20-25 per cent of the ADP in the first six months of a fiscal. They performed the same in July-November period of FY 15."
"Look at Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project. The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has failed to complete the road development work during the last eight years. Now it has applied for time extension for another year. So, you can observe their capacity."
Development analyst Dr Zaid Bakht told the FE that the government has actually failed to improve capacity of the public agencies over the years despite its repeated efforts.
"It is interesting that both the government and the project implementing agencies know that obstacles, like - land acquisition, manpower shortage, lack of coordination among the ministries concerned, and delay in tender processing, affect the project work. But still they can't overcome these barriers."
A high-powered government committee should be formed to monitor and review the development projects as well as recommended suggestions to overcome the obstacles on their implementation, he added.
Dr Ahsan H. Mansur, another development analyst, said: "We always hear some certain problems on the way of implementing the development projects. The government also says it is working to boost capacity of the public agencies and speed up implementation of the projects. But in true sense there is no improvement."
He suggested that post-project evaluation should be made mandatory, conferring higher authority to the evaluating agency, so that they can suggest punishment for any loophole and corruption in a particular project.
Dr Mansur also emphasised appointing accountable and responsible full-time directors for the development projects to ensure their physical progress as well as quality spending.
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