Non-implementation of ADP fund

One of the common excuses for non-implementation of Annual Development Programme (ADP) fund has long been the delay in releasing the allocated money by the international financial institutions and donors. This time, implementers have been left with no room for such a complaint because in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, as high as 80 per cent of the Tk 460 billion development budget was received by them. This shows old habits die hard. Overall, only 11 per cent of ADP could be implemented. The 54 ministries and divisions of the government could spend only Tk 48.35 billion. So far as the utilisation of local resources accounting for a fund of Tk 273.15 billion is concerned, the rate of implementation is slightly higher at 15 per cent. But some ministries, known for big spending, have to their credit deplorable records of utilising as low as 2.0 per cent of their allocated funds. When primary education suffers from lack of teachers, school buildings and educational implements, how should people receive the news that it had been able to utilise only five per cent of its total budget outlay? The railway, road and bridge divisions and the education ministry did not fare any better as well. And this is at a time when most of the highways and roads in the country are in a deplorable condition and its railway really needs enormous investment for its improvement. Again, the water resources ministry could utilise only 3.0 per cent of its allocated fund when the country's rivers are shrinking in the absence of capital river dredging, putting navigable channels at risk. However, the worst performers, energy and mineral resources division on the one hand and health and family welfare ministry on the other lagged behind with the unenviable record of utilising only 2.0 per cent of their funds. Against acute energy crunch, the success in exploration of gas by the country's lone petroleum exploration and production company Bapex points to the fact that putting more money in the sector would have yielded rich dividends. This is no way of working to the potential of local experts and companies. Similarly, the health and population are an area that has ever remained neglected and the rate of implementation of projects is no sign of getting things better in the near future. The nation is annoyed at hearing excuses right at the moment when foreign funds for development projects are hard to come by. Lack of fund is one thing and the inability of the administrative apparatus to implement projects with funds at their disposal is a completely different proposition. The poor performance in project implementation itself demands a serious look into it for a workable remedy. This time the compulsion is even greater because of the availability of committed fund. The implementers would not be telling the nation now that there is a serious shortage of manpower. They know better what they are asked to do, their job is to deliver and place requisition at the planning stage. Have bureaucratic tangles anything to do here? At a time when the country is paying a heavy price for inadequate infrastructure, the non-utilisation of ADP funds should not be taken lightly. Let everything be put in place for raising the efficiency at all levels of project implementation.