Published in The Daily Observer on Tuesday, 28 July 2015.
Implementation of ADP slows in FY 2014-15
Political turmoil blamed
Mizanur Rahman
Implementation of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) slowed by two per cent in 2014-15 fiscal year compared to the year ago, Planning Commission officials said. They blamed the decline on the political turmoil in the country, perpetrated by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies in the year to June 2015.
Planning Minister AHM Mustofa Kamal will disclose ADP implementation figure on Tuesday (today) at a press conference at the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the capital.
The government has not been able to spend the entire ADP funds in 2014-15, despite repeated assurances by Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.
The Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED) of the Planning Ministry reported ADP spending of Tk 710.79 billion in 2014-15 FY. That is 91 per cent of the target. Gross ADP spending had increased in the previous financial year, but slowed in the next FY.
In the 2014-15 FY, the government has spent 67 per cent of the ADP allocations until May this year. Then in June, it managed to spend 24 per cent of it.
Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), told the Daily Observer, “At the beginning of the year the ministries and divisions don’t show interest to implement the ADP for long time. But at the end of the year they rush to spend the budget quickly.”
“It affects the quality of the projects badly,” he added.
According to the IMED, only Power Division, Department of Road Transport and Highways and Ministry of Science and Technology have implemented 100 per cent of their ADP projects in the current fiscal year. Besides, the Ministry of Railways implemented 99 per cent, Ministry of Education 98 per cent, local government 96 per cent, bridges category 89 percent and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare 85 per cent in the current fiscal year.
According to the Planning commission sources, the National Economic Council (NEC) finalized the Revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) for the current fiscal (2014-15) with an outlay of Tk 75,000 crore, down from the original ADP outlay of Tk 80,314 crore. Of the total amount, about Tk 50,100 crore will come as local currency and Tk 24,900 crore from project aid.
Besides, the revised ADP kept some 280 probable projects to be completed in the current fiscal year. The revised ADP kept an allocation of TK 2,187 crore for the ICT sector.
Meanwhile, the CPD and other research organisations, economists and experts have expressed apprehension about realisation of 7.3 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) growth during FY 2014-15. Even the finance minister announced the downsizing of the growth target.
The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) also expressed such concern. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has categorically said that every sector of Bangladesh economy has been affected by the political unrest in the last fiscal year.
This would result in that the economy would not be able to achieve more that 6.1 per cent GDP growth, they said.