NEWS report published in The New Nation on Saturday said the revised annual development programme (RADP) has showed as outlined in a report of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the government that in mater of project implementation 88 projects saw no expenditure and 92 made zero real progress under fiscal 2014-15. The government however posted 95 percent success rate in ADP implementation during last year. The report further said during the last fiscal year 298 projects were scheduled for completion but 233 were really completed out of a total of 1366 projects in the annual development programme.
The self defeating report in government development achievements for 2013-14 was presented before the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting on March 10 with its chairperson Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presiding over the meeting. The Ministry of Planning produced the report to the government’s highest economic policy making body but it appears that there was hardly any serious debate as to why the progress in those projects were zero and how then such high rates of success in RADP implementation was achieved with zero progress in 186 projects.
As we see, there is no denying of the fact that the 88 projects in question were small projects with total allocations of Tk 34 crore and only Tk.0.66 crore was spent against it. Other 92 had only small allocations. The report cited delay in invitation of tender bids for newly included projects, non responsive of the tenders and a lot of other problems to have hindered their success.
Here the major question is over ambition of the government to include as many projects in the ADP or later in the RADP to seek their funding from external sources. But it is not always easier to find funding now under various constraints from donors’ end. So the ADP shows bigger in size but the implementation remains handicapped many ways. It is understandable. But how then the overall ADP implementation hits 95 percent is the big question, besides the quality of public expenditure. That is whether or not all that money was really spent in the ground or mere release of the fund is treated as achievement in development. Moreover, the capacity of the government to mobilize development activities in the field has become almost marginalized this year under the prolonged blockade and violence all over the country. The ADP implementation success rate is feared to be much lower this year than last year.
We held the view that projects in the ADP must be efficiently selected without political or personal motive to benefit from them and then concentration must be made to achieve their highest implementation.
