The public-private-partnership (PPP) initiative has failed to attract any significant private investment in improving the country’s infrastructure. Official data shows, in all 79 projects involving $36.5 billion have been selected since the introduction of the PPP programme about 11 years ago in 2010. So far, only one of the projects — haemodialysis centres in Dhaka and Chattogram — has been implemented. We observe that no government projects are completed on time. They are dragged on in the interest of corruption by increasing the cost manifold. There is no accountability and all concerned knows efficiency is no consideration.
Experts, however, have identified a variety of reasons, including project selection, overvalued costing, implementation delays, flawed feasibility studies and corruption, for the sorry state of the PPP. Corruption was one of the major negative factors that discouraged both local and foreign private investors to come forward with PPP investments. The strategy paper of the General Economics Division under the Planning Ministry also blamed failure of the government to launch major PPP projects and its inability to attract foreign direct investment for the continued stagnation in domestic private-sector investment. Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management in a study titled ‘Financial and non-financial issues in implementing PPP in Bangladesh’ has also identified cost and time overruns, project appraisal, project monitoring by the government, transparency and capacity building as major challenges for PPP ventures.
According to a news report on Sunday, most of the projects selected by the government in the power, road, port, housing, medical care and bridge sectors have failed to bring in shaky private investors. However, countries like Canada, UK, the Philippines and India have taken a long time to make PPP projects fruitful. Bangladesh, on the other hand, failed to make any headway even after the lapse of a long time in this regard. Overvalued estimation and financial constraints had forced the government to exclude non-viable projects from the PPP list. In the past six months, at least five PPP projects, including dredging works at the Payra Port, construction of a Dhaka-Chattogram expressway and building of the Laldia Bulk Terminal, have been dropped. Another half a dozen more PPP projects, including a circular rapid transit project in Naryanaganj, an inland container depot in Gazipur, an LNG bottling plant and an IT village at Mohakhali in the capital, have also been selected for delisting against the backdrop of less-than-expected progress of those projects.
Raising of cardboards and billboards showing pictures of Bangabandhu and his family members is no help to prove competence of the government. These cardboards and billboard are widely used for ownership of lands. In this case these cardboards and billboard strike one’s mind as claiming ownership of the country freed by India, accepting happy surrender of Pakistan army. Living in the world of lies and day dreams is not achievement or success. Bureaucrats enjoying the fun of their mischief.
