The government agencies have failed to improve their project execution capacity as they implemented only 3.85 per cent of the development budget in the July-August period of this fiscal year, official data showed on Tuesday.
During July-August period of the last fiscal year of 2021-22 (FY2022), the government agencies executed 3.82 per cent of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) which was 3.89 per cent during the same period in FY2021, as per the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) data.
Despite economic recovery in the last one year from Covid-19, the project implementation pace is still showing a similar trend in the current FY2023.
Interestingly, three years ago, the ADP implementation rate was recorded at 4.48 per cent during the first two months of FY2020.
Meanwhile, out of the 3.85 per cent ADP execution during the first two months of the current FY2023, the government agencies executed 2.89 per cent in August while the remaining 0.96 per cent in July.
"The government is investing millions of dollars every year for training the civil servants, but their capacity is still poor," said a member of the Planning Commission.
Unless the government takes any special actions, the ADP implementation will not get a push, he added.
The FE analysis has found that the local government division, power division, and the railways ministry have given a big push to the overall ADP implementation during the July-August period as the trio implemented more than 7.0 per cent of their allocations.
However, the science and technology ministry, shipping ministry, and water resources ministry have even failed to implement 1.0 per cent of the ADP, the analysis has found.
Meanwhile, 15 larger development budget-holding ministries and divisions spent 3.88 per cent on an average of their respective allocations during the July-August period.
According to the analysis, the science and technology ministry - the fourth largest development budget holder - was the worst performer in implementing development works in the first two months of the current fiscal year, spending only 0.45 per cent from its ADP outlay.
According to the IMED, all the government ministries and agencies spent Tk 98.44 billion, 3.85 per cent of the total Tk 2.56 trillion ADP outlay, during the first two months of FY2023.
In the same period last FY2022, they spent Tk 90.53 billion - 3.82 per cent of the total Tk 2.37 trillion outlay.
