IN keeping with tradition, the last minute spending of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) which occurred at a hurried pace compared to the first half of fiscal year is leading to a sheer wastage of money and is in fact making room for corruption. A National English daily dragged the scenario up when it reported that the government spent Tk 560 crore from the development fund everyday in the month of last June which took the total ADP implementation to 95 percent in FY 2013-14.
In May, the average daily spending of the ADP was Tk 238 crore which took the implementation rate to 67 percent in the month, according to the data of the Planning Ministry. The total ADP spending in June was Tk 16,811 crore which was 29 per cent of the total allocation of Tk 60,000 crore, the report added. In fact, spending nearly 50 percent of the total ADP allocation in two months is a gigantic task. Such a situation emerges every year, affecting the quality of the completed projects. The durability of infrastructures, constructed or developed hurriedly, is generally found to be short.
It has been witnessed that the ministries, while formulating the ADP, pile up pressure on the government to increase allocation for them but in the year end they fail to implement their allocated money’s project and it ends up being consumed by them and their political and bureaucratic associates.
Experts said such a spending spree in the last month of the fiscal year raises questions about the accuracy and quality of work. They said it becomes a trend that the last month of every fiscal year would cover significant amounts of ADP spending. Former adviser to the caretaker government Mirza Azizul Islam suggested that the government should not only focus on spending but also concentrate on the quality of work. BIDS research director Zaid Bakht unveiled a bitter truth as he said some of the last minute ADP spending had been done without any physical work and sometimes the amounts paid under mutual understanding during the last minute spending spree occurred without any work being done, making room for wasting public taxes.
Many agencies, including government bodies, have been found to drain the national exchequer by misusing funds and facilities of development projects during the last months. We find a competition for spending the allocated money to reach the ‘spending target’ but not a competition to implement projects properly that widely opens the gates of corruption for Cabinet members, rural political activists, and government employees to project’s peons. The irregularities pursued by them include drawing tender money without actually implementing the work, procuring and supplying low quality materials, and misusing project vehicles and other facilities.
Though several reasons are attributed for the dull performance of ADP, including, proper monitoring and evaluation, poor flow of foreign aid, problems with land acquisition, lack of proper planning and expertise, and frequent transfers of project directors, but a lack of capability and efficiency of the ministries concerned is the all-in-all behind the crisis.
This year Tk 80,315 crore ADP has been taken up, but we are in doubt as to actually how much money will be spent for development and how much will go to pockets of corruption.
