The implemented rate of Annual Development Programme (ADP) continues to remain in sluggish path owing to the country's political changeover.
ADP implementation rate reached 21.52 per cent during the first seven months (July-January), showing one of its lowest execution rates in the recent years. The rate was 27.11 per cent during the same period last year. The rate was 28.16 per cent, 30.21 per cent, and 28.45 per cent in 2022-23, 2021-22 and 2020-21 respectively, according to the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Planning Ministry.
The government managed to implement development projects worth Tk 59,877 crore from July to January of the current fiscal. The expenditure was Tk 74,464 crore during the same period last fiscal.
Earlier, the government allocated Tk 2,782,88 crore for the ADP this fiscal.
In 2023-24 fiscal, the government managed to implement projects worth Tk 74,464 crore while the amount was Tk 72,090 crore, Tk 71,533 crore and Tk 61,048 crore in 2022-23, 2021-22 and 2020-2021 fiscals respectively.
Sources said that this time the work of revising the ADP has started a little earlier. First, the allocation of foreign-aided projects is being reduced. Officials of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) will hold a meeting with officials of various ministries this month. The ERD is being strict in allocating new foreign-aided projects in the ADP.
A review of the revised ADP of the past few years shows that even though foreign debt has decreased, government financing does not decrease.
The size of the ADP for the current fiscal is Tk 278,289 crore. Of this, Tk 165,000 crore is being provided from local sources. ADP may be cut by Tk 30,000 crore from government sources.
According to the Planning Commission, the rate is 12-13 per cent for government institutions that are implementing projects with their own funds.
While the government is facing challenges in speeding up the execution of development projects, experts are urging for greater focus on overcoming delays in order to meet the targets set for the rest of the fiscal year.
Planning Commission sources said that the government put special emphasis on the good and innovative projects which are corruption free initially, while implementation of the projects have to be corruption free from any aspect.
The interim government thinks that the previous Awami League government took a number of projects at inflated value that resulted in irregularities during its implementation level, including during the appointment of the contractor.
To prevent corruption and irregularities in the development projects, from the very beginning the interim government tried to stop wastage of public money and corruption and cut the number of projects for which the implementation rate suffered a lot, causing a heavy toll on the money circulation in the economy.
