Tightening belts to weather a bad time amid a global crunch drove down development-programme implementation in Bangladesh as the rate was only 18.41 per cent in the first five months of this fiscal, officials say.
This rate marks a seven-year low, save the corona-ravaged fiscal year (FY) 2020-21.
Massive lacking in health, education, and primary and mass education fields dipped the annual development programme (ADP) execution rate, an FE analysis has found.
Despite an economic recovery from the Covid-19 impact in lat FY2022, the government ministries and agencies could not recoup from weak capacity in ADP execution, analysts and Planning Commission officials said Thursday.
During the July-November period of the current FY2023, the government agencies spent Tk471.22 billion, 18.41 per cent of the total Tk2.56-trillion ADP, Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) data showed.
In the same period last FY, the government agencies utilised Tk440.61 billion, 18.61 per cent of the Tk2.37-trillion ADP outlay, the official data showed.
Seven years ago in FY2016, the ADP-implementation rate was the lowest at 16.84 per cent.
Meanwhile, the massive impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the development works affected the project execution in the FY2021 as the rate was recorded at 17.93 per cent.
The FE analysis has found that massive failure of the health ministry, and primary and mass education ministry in executing their development programmes lowered the overall execution rate in this past July-November period.
The health services division under the health ministry executed only 7.50 per cent and the primary and mass education ministry 8.08 per cent of the ADP during the five months-less than half of the average execution rate.
Among the seven largest development-budget holders, the education ministry also performed poorly during the period as its implementation rate was 10 per cent.
A Planning Commission official says, "The health ministry has been performing very poor over the years and now we have to think about their implementation capacity and fund allocation."
Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute Dr Ahsan H Mansur says: "The government is investing millions of dollars every year in training up the Bangladesh civil servants but their capacity is still proving poor."
The officials with the procurement and project execution "should be punished for their failure", he adds.
The FE analysis has found that among the higher budget-holders, the science ministry, and civil aviation and tourism ministry's execution rates were also lower than the average 18.41-percent ADP implementation in the July-Nov period.
However, Local Government Division, Power Division, Roads and Highways Division, Bridges Division, Water Resources Ministry, Housing and Public Works, Agriculture Ministry, Prime Minister's Office and Railway Ministry performed better during the same period this FY2023.
The larger 15 development budget-holding ministries and divisions spent 18.74 per cent on average of their respective allocations during the period, the FE analysis has found. The government has taken a Tk 2.56-trillion ADP for the current fiscal year to implemented more than 1700 projects.
Dr Ahsan Mansur feels that the government should bring all the project-execution authorities under accountability so that the development projects are implemented in time with highest quality.
