Published in New Age on Tuesday, 28 October 2014.
Approval of Dev projects worth up to Tk 25cr
Govt set to empower ministers
Experts fear misuse of public money
Jasim Uddin
The government is going to empower ministers with the authority of approving investment projects costing up to Tk 25 crore under the annual development programme despite opposition from the planning ministry officials.
The finance ministry said that the move was taken to save time in approving small-scale development projects while experts warned of probable misuse of power and public money if the process could not ensure transparency and accountability of the ministers.
The planning minister may also be given the authority to approve investment or development projects of up to Tk 50 crore instead of Tk 25 crore to speed up implementation of the ADP, officials of the planning ministry said.
Experts said that there should be check and balance to prevent corruption and plunder of public money.
‘Though the initiative is being taken to save time and make the project approval process easier, the move to allow ministers to approve development projects will destroy the discipline in public expenditure,’ said a planning ministry official.
The decision will also weaken the Planning Commission and may create scope for misuse of public money, he said.
Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, however, recommended raising the ceiling for ministers, except the planning minister, to Tk 50 crore. For planning minister, he proposed to increase the ceiling to Tk 100 crore.
Officials said that planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal did not agree to the threshold proposed by the finance minister and said that in the existing economic condition the ceiling should be Tk 50 crore for the planning minister and Tk 25 crore for other ministers.
A committee formed to revise the existing policy regarding the government’s project preparation, processing, approval and revision system-2008 will finalise their recommendations soon and place it before the National Economic Council, the highest economic policy-making body of the government, headed by the prime minister, for its approval, they said.
The committee headed by the planning secretary initially did not make any recommendations for giving power to ministers for project approval, they said.
Now the committee has decided to include the recommendation as some influential ministers and secretaries are lobbying for the authority, they added.
According to the existing policy, the planning minister can approve development projects costing up to Tk 25 crore.
A project worth above Tk 25 crore must need approval by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council.
Other ministers have no authority to approve any development projects while they can approve technical assistance projects costing up to Tk 7 crore and survey and feasibility study projects costing up to Tk 2 crore.
Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman told New Age that the decision might have been taken as part of a move to decentralise the development project implementation process and bring flexibility and speed in the process.
But there are risks of misuse of the power and misuse of taxpayers’ money which was seen earlier in different cases when some ministers misused their power and indulged in corruption and took many decisions beyond accountability and transparency, he said.
‘Transparency, accountability, and check and balance in the process will have to be ensured through legal framework so that no ministers can misuse the power. Otherwise chances of corruption will remain,’ he said.
Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Mustafizur Rahman told New Age that the coordination responsibility should be kept at the planning ministry. Otherwise, it may create a mess in the implementation of development projects.
The government will also have to ensure governance in approval process by the ministers and will have to increase implementation capacity of the ministries, he said.
The decision, in principle, may bring positive impact in terms of decentralisation of power and strengthening the ministries if these issues can be addressed, he added.
Planning Commission officials said that the ministries did not have enough manpower to process and evaluate project proposals.
The authorities will break the discipline in public expenditure as their will be no check and balance and the ministers may take projects in their own interest beyond national priorities, they said adding that currently Planning Commission as a third party evaluates the necessity of a project and other technical aspects and expenditure break-ups.
Ministers may take up many projects costing up to Tk 25 crore as there is no ceiling on the number of projects, they said.