H1 ADP execution lowest in 12 years

The health ministry emerged as the worst performer again in terms of spending the development budget during the first half (H1) of this fiscal year (FY 2024-25) as all the public agencies utilised only 18 per cent funds, insiders said on Tuesday.
Even the better performance in the last month (December) of the H1 (July-December) by many public agencies had failed to pick up the overall performance of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) implementations, they said.
The health ministry's worst performance of only 4.92 per cent implementation rate during H1 of this fiscal has affected the expected outcome of this ADP implementations, according to Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) data.
The government agencies had spent only Tk 500.02 billion, 17.97 per cent of the total Tk 2.78 trillion ADP during the July-December period of the current FY2025.
The 8th largest development budget holder-the Health Services Division under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare - has utilised only 4.92 per cent of its Tk 111.53-billion outlay.
Meanwhile, the overall performance of the public agencies in December improved compared to the any of the previous five months (Jul-Nov) as they spent 5.67 per cent in the terminal month of the H1, the IMED report said.
In the corresponding month December in 2024, the ADP fund utilisation rate was 5.42 per cent, 0.25 percentage points lower than this December.
According to the IMED's available data, the ADP implementation during the H1 this FY2025 was the worst in 12 years, as the government agencies spent only 17.97 per cent of the Tk 2.78-trillion development programme.
So, the project implementing agencies have to utilise the remaining 82.03 per cent of the Tk 2.78-trillion ADP outlay during the second half (H2), January-June, period of the current FY2025, the IMED data showed.
Meanwhile, the ADP execution rate in the same period last FY2024 was even 4.51 percentage points higher to 22.48 per cent than the 17.97 per cent rate in the current FY2025.
A senior IMED official said although the July-August uprising affected the overall ADP execution during the H1 this fiscal, it has started to improve in the last couple of months.
"We are hopeful of getting an improvement on the project execution in the second half of the current fiscal year," he added.
Meanwhile, the government agencies had performed worse in spending the government's internal resources compared to the external resources titled project aid (PA) during the H1 of the FY2025.
According to the IMED data, the ministries and agencies spent 15.84 per cent of the Tk 261.30-billion allocation from the internal resources while 19.61 per cent of the Tk 196.09-billion PA outlay in the ongoing ADP.
The autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies of the government performed better with their 32.08 per cent utilisation rate during the July-December period of the current FY2025.
"It is very unfortunate that the public ministries and agencies have been failing to improve their capacity even after repeated reminders to them for expediting the development works," another senior IMED official told the FE.
In the current FY2025, the government has framed a Tk 2.78-trillion ADP for implementing some 1,353 development projects.
The FE analysis has found that the ADP implementation rate during the July-December period of the previous FY2023 was 23.53 per cent, of the FY2021 was 23.89 per cent, of the FY2020 was 26.59 per cent, of the FY2019 was 27.45 per cent, of the FY2018 was 27.02 per cent and of the FY2017 was 23.24 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Planning Commission (PC) has started to revise the current Tk 2.78-trillion ADP amid the lower project execution rate.
Along with the health ministry, the ADP implementations rate was recorded worse by some other ministries.
During the July-December period this FY2025, the Bridges Division was the 2nd worse performer as it has utilised only 7.84 per cent of its ADP allocations while the Shipping Ministry 9.50 per cent, Secondary and Higher Education Division 13.52 per cent, Roads and Highways Division 16.04 per cent, and the Primary and Mass Education Ministry 16.60 per cent.
In the same period, the Power Division performed best with 30.58 per cent of its ADP execution rate during the July-December period of the current FY2025.
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