The Annual Development Programme (ADP) spending hit four-year low in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year (FY) 2019-20 due to the impact of the coronavirus on the development work, officials said.
The government ministries and agencies spent Tk 988.40 billion, 49.13 per cent of total allocation in the Revised ADP, during the July-April period of the current FY.
During the same period (Jul-Apr) in last FY2019, the public agencies spent 55 per cent of their total allocation while 52 per cent in FY2018, 54.56 per cent in FY2017 and 50.17 per cent in FY2016.
After the NEC meeting on Tuesday, Planning Minister MA Mannan said the coronavirus pandemic has hit hard the development work over the last couple of months which slowed the implementation rate.
When asked about the resumption of ADP implementation at the end of this year, Mr Mannan said: "The ADP implementation will not be achieved like previous years. But it is difficult to predict at this moment about how much is possible this year. But I am sure it will be lower than that of previous years."
"We do not spend in a hurry. The money will be spent on the basis of needs. If there are irregularities, that must be corruption. We have said it many times earlier that we will not tolerate corruption."
"But due to the pandemic this year, the projects' work was not in a progress after March. That means funds were not be released. This is really an exclusive year. We have to wait until the next fiscal to assess our real situation of ADP implementation," MA Mannan said.
The planning minister, however, was critical about the slower rate of implementation even after relaxing the process of fund release and other factors.
He told reporters that the prime minister at the NEC meeting on Tuesday stressed on speedy completion of projects.
According to the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), the railway ministry is on the list of poor performers among top 10 large spenders as it had implemented only 18 per cent of its development programme during the July-April period.
