Project execution poor in Feb too

Government agencies failed to improve their project implementation capacity in February too as their execution rate in the first eight months has been the lowest in 14 years, officials said.
The month-on-month Annual Development Programme (ADP) implementation rate has been recorded at a lower rate over the last few months than the corresponding period of the previous years, they said on Wednesday.
During the July-February period of fiscal year 2023-24, the agencies spent Tk 856.02 billion, 31.17 per cent, on the Tk 2.74-trillion ADP outlay.
The Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) disclosed this the same day.
The ADP execution rate during the same period in FY2023 was even 1.0 percentage point higher at 32.10 per cent, according to the government data.
According to the IMED, the government agencies during July-February period of FY2023 spent Tk 821.7 billion, 32.10 per cent, on the Tk 2.56-trillion ADP.
An FE analysis finds ADP implementation at a lower rate as some big ministries and budget-holders, including health and shipping ministries, and secondary and higher education division, performed bleak during the reporting period.
According to Planning Commission and IMED officials, ministries and agencies have been failing to improve their capacity over the months even after repeated warnings by the prime minister and the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).
"Public ministries and agencies have been failing to improve their capacity over the years even after repeated reminders to them for expediting development work. It's unfortunate," said a senior IMED official.
In the current FY2024, the government has framed a Tk 2.74-trillion ADP for implementing some 1,400 development projects.
The FE has found that the execution rate during the Jul-Feb period of FY2022 was a stunning 35.80 per cent.
It was 33.83 per cent in FY2021, 37.26 per cent in FY2020, 39.13 per cent in FY2019 and 38.01 per cent in FY2018. The IMED has the data available for the last 14 years since FY2011. Over the years, the execution rate was the lowest during the July-February period in FY2024.
When asked, an IMED senior official said they always monitor and evaluate implementation of ongoing projects time to time where the project directors are asked to expedite their work.
"The premier and the ECNEC meeting also give some instructions to expedite the project execution avoiding inflated cost and a time overrun," he added. Amid the lower project execution rate, the Commission on March 12 revised down the ADP to Tk 2.54 trillion. According to IMED officials, the ADP implementations rate was recorded lowest as some big ministries, including health ministry, shipping ministry, industries ministry and education department.
During the period in question, shipping ministry was the worst performer as it utilised only 13.88 per cent of its ADP allocation, while secondary and higher education division 14.71 per cent.

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