Mini RADP in every quarter from next fiscal: Minister

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said Wednesday his ministry has planned to prepare mini Revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) in every quarter of a fiscal year.
"From the next fiscal, we have some new plans. We will sit with ministries and agencies on their project execution performance in every quarter. After evaluation, we will prepare a mini RADP to streamline project execution," he said at a press meet at the Planning Commission in the city.
Currently, the Planning Commission (PC) revises the original ADP in the third quarter once in a year cutting the original allocations.
Mr Kamal said: "We will bring some changes in the implementation process of the ADP from management perspective. We will take action plans from all the ministries early in the fiscal year. Then we will review it in every quarter."
Although some reforms for expediting the ADP implementation have already been undertaken, it would take some more years to get results, he added.
"We have already relaxed the rules of releasing funds in the ADP. The ministries can disburse funds against the project works in three tranches out of four in the first three quarters. Earlier, they could release only one tranche in the first quarter. But the implementation rate is still similar like that of the previous years. I am not happy over this ADP execution performance."
He, however, claimed that he was the most successful minister compared to others including the previous minister or advisors some of whom were economists in implementing the development budget.
About the country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth, Mr Kamal said the economy could grow at more than 7.0 per cent rate this fiscal had there been no political violence early this year.
He criticised local economists who termed Bangladesh's 6.0 per cent GDP growth a 'trap'.
"The local think-tank economists termed the 6.0 per cent growth a trap. On the other hand, working economists and Indian Prime Minister Narandra Modi recently said maintaining 6.0 per cent consistent growth over the years in Bangladesh is a remarkable achievement," he said.
"So, tell me which opinion about Bangladesh we, the evaluation economists, will believe," he asked journalists.
He observed if the political violence by the BNP and its allies did not take place during four months of the current fiscal, the economy could have grown at 7.0 per cent rate.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) in its recent estimation has showed the country's economy expanding at 6.51 per cent rate in the current fiscal.
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