The capabilities of those who are involved with the budget implementation process will have to be increased for getting desired results
Published in The Financial Express on Thursday, 17 September 2015.
Ministries, agencies asked to work out budget implementation plans
Rezaul Karim
The government has asked all the ministries, divisions and agencies to devise separate budget implementation plans aiming to ensure proper implementation of the country’s fiscal budget, officials said.
The ministries, divisions and agencies will have to submit the budget implementation plans and reports on implementation progress of their respective budgets quarterly according to prescribed policy and method, they said.
The Finance Division under the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has already issued the directives to the ministries, divisions and agencies in this regard.
The budget implementation plans will have to be submitted to the Finance Division by October 08 next. The reports on implementation progress of their respective budgets will have to be sent within a month after the end of every quarter of the fiscal year.
“We have asked the ministries, divisions and agencies to devise budget implementation plans to ensure proper implementation of the national budget and get better result from budget expenditures. The move has been taken under Medium-Term Budgetary Framework (MTBF),” Additional Secretary of the Finance Division Jalal Ahmed told the FE Tuesday.
Different ministries, divisions and agencies have achieved much progress in preparing budgets including other relevant tasks in the light of the government policy, its objective and priority. But proper implementation of the budget is the main challenge for them, sources concerned said.
Most of the programmes taken up by the ministries, divisions and agencies from the fiscal year 2009-10 to FY 2014-15 have been completed successfully. But the programmes undertaken in last three fiscal years are underway. Some programmes have also been taken up in the current fiscal year. So, it needs to make specific and time-bound plans for implementing the programmes, they said.
Usually, the budget implementation by the ministries, divisions and agencies goes slowly in the first half of every fiscal year. At the same time, the volume of revenue collections and other expenditures is also slow.
Besides, most of the state agencies concerned take initiatives for payment of different utility bills, maintenance and preservation, constructions, purchasing and collection of necessary goods in the second half of the fiscal year.
Moreover, the government has to bear an unexpected loan burden. As a result, it is not possible to ensure budgetary disciplines, they mentioned.
Expenditures of some ministries increase abnormally at the beginning of the fiscal year that is responsible for raising the government loan, they said.
There is an imbalance between government earnings and expenditures due to lack of proper policy regarding these issues. It will be possible to avoid unplanned government debt and expenses if the ministries, divisions and agencies concerned devise plans as early as possible.
“There are qualitative and quantitative problems with implementation of the country’s fiscal budget. The capabilities of those who are involved with the budget implementation process will have to be increased for getting desired results,” Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Professor Mustafizur Rahman told the FE.