Seven govt agencies asked to find out reasons

REZAUL KARIM | Published: December 30, 2020 22:24:50

Identifying seven ministries and divisions as poor performers in their implementation of development works, the government has asked them to find out the reasons behind the situation, officials said.
The Ministry of Planning has recently asked the ministries and divisions to expedite execution of their development works under the Annual Development Programme (ADP).
The seven ministries and divisions could use less than 6.0 per cent of their total ADP outlay during July-November period of this year, they added.
The poor performers were the public resource, financial institution, public security, and post and telecommunication divisions, which spent only 0.72 per cent, 4.12 per cent, 5.41 per cent and 5.03 per cent respectively of their total allocations during the period under review.
Besides, the ministries of public administration, information, and commerce spent 4.01 per cent, 5.13 per cent and 5.89 per cent respectively during the same period.
The ministries and agencies were able to use 17.93 per cent or Tk 384.73 billion of their total ADP outlay during July-November period of this year, the officials noted.
The Covid-19 pandemic seriously affected execution of development projects by the relevant government ministries and agencies during July-November period of this fiscal year (FY), 2020-21, said a high official of the Ministry of Planning.
"We are hopeful of recovering from the sluggishness in project implementation after the first half of this fiscal," he added.
In FY 2012, the public agencies implemented 20 per cent of their total ADP outlay during July-Nov period, 25 per cent in FY 2013, 20 per cent in FY 2014, 19 per cent in FY 2015, 19 per cent in FY 2016, 21 per cent in FY 2017, 20 per cent in FY 2018, 20 per cent in FY 2019, and 19 per cent in FY 2020.
The Planning Commission officials said weak performance by the ministries and agencies in executing the foreign-aided projects was another reason behind the poor ADP execution performance this year.
According to the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), the government ministries and agencies spent Tk 116.82 billion or 16.57 per cent of the total Tk 705.02 billion outlay from the project aid during the period.
On the other hand, they utilised Tk 257.37 billion or 19.12 per cent of the total Tk 1.34 trillion funds from the government's internal resources.
The government framed a Tk 2.14-trillion ADP, incorporating 1,724 development projects for execution.
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