Mannan warns on third-time revision of dev projects

The Planning Commission (PC) is going to be tough on the public agencies which revise their development projects repeatedly.
Planning Minister MA Mannan warned on Tuesday the public agencies which are accustomed to placing their projects for a third-time revision after failing to implement those in time.
"If any agency comes to revise its respective projects for the third time, we will bring it to the Prime Minister's notice. The PM doesn't want to see frequent revision of projects," he told reporters after the project review meeting at the PC in Dhaka.
Mr Mannan also said from now on the Commission will enlist the names of those agencies which will place projects for a third-time revision.
The minister sat with government ministries and agencies to review the projects under the Revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) of the last fiscal year (FY) 2018-19 and ADP of the current FY2020.
Secretaries, project directors and high officials concerned of different ministries were present at the meeting.
In most cases, PC officials said, the ministries and agencies seek revision of the projects even twice or thrice or come to the PC for re-appropriation of their allocated funds for respective projects. This affects fiscal management as well as development works.
They said the Commission has been forced to re-appropriate funds for more than 600 projects of different agencies even after revision of the ADP in the third quarter of the last FY2019.
The planning minister also asked the ministries and agencies on Tuesday to ensure proper implementation of the projects as they would step up vigilance on the development works.
The executing agencies of the large projects will have to install closed-circuit cameras on the project site so that all works could be watched and monitored, he added.
"Since Bangladesh has stepped up towards digitalisation, the project site should have CC cameras. We will discuss the issue at the ECNEC meeting," he said referring to project monitoring by Water Development Board through CC Camera.
Meanwhile, an official who attended the review meeting on Tuesday told the FE that the minister asked the ministries not to go for re-appropriation of funds within the particular project or among the projects of the same ministries even after revision of the Annual Development Programme (ADP).
Mr Mannan also asked the public agencies to study feasibility before taking up any projects. "The PM has strictly asked all to do feasibility study properly."
The planning minister told reporters that they have asked the ministries not to change the project directors frequently and monitor the development works regularly.
About the land complexities, he said: "Some projects are facing land acquisition problem while some agencies are not implementing projects properly and timely although they have available lands. This is very unfortunate."
Expressing satisfaction over 94 per cent RADP implementation rate in the last fiscal year (FY) 2018-19, MA Mannan said they were hopeful of implementing cent percent of the Tk 2.02 trillion current ADP for the FY2020.
General Economics Division Member Prof Shamsul Alam, Planning Secretary Md Nurul Amin, Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division Secretary Abul Mansur Md. Faizullah were present at the meeting.

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