Priority resetting slows ADP execution to record low

Government ministries and divisions spent a record-low Tk219.78 billion altogether in the first four months of this fiscal from the total development budget worth Tk2.78 trillion, amid belt-tightening in spending.
Latest official account of implementation of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) in the July-October period shows a mere 7.90-percent rate of execution of public-works projects.
The ADP spending in the same period of the last fiscal year was Tk316.92 billion, accounting for 11.45 per cent of the outlay, reveals the latest report of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the planning ministry.
The ADP implementation plummeted by an annualised rate of 30.65 per cent-the lowest in the last 15 years since the fiscal year 2010-2011.
Secretary of the IMED Abul Kashem Md Mohiuddin explains the slow pace of development-budget execution: The current government has postponed disbursement of funds for some projects to review the necessity, which retarded the development activities.
"The allocations for projects identified as important are being released and disbursement for less-priority projects remained stopped," he says.
However, the development activities for priority sectors like health, education and other social-infrastructure sectors also remained stalled in the first four months of the fiscal year.
The spending on physical infrastructures, like rail, power, science and technology led by Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, outpaced the average ADP-implementation rate.
The IMED report reveals that the medical-education division and family-welfare division of the health ministry spent only Tk751.64 million in the last four months.
The rate is only 2.01 per cent of the total allocation for the division at Tk493.65 billion.
The health-service division implemented only 2.42 per cent of ADP allocation in four months.
The implementation rate for the secondary and higher education division lagged below 7.0 per cent.
However, the local government division spent Tk52.8 billion in the last four months-the highest among all of the ministries and divisions. The implementation rate for the division stood at 13.90 per cent.
Power division spent Tk35.21 billion, the second-highest among all implementing agencies.

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