The government has implemented only 49 per cent of the development projects in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year (FY), with the health ministry performing poorly again, officials said on Sunday.
The health services division, 5th highest development fund holders, executed only 25.46 per cent of its Annual Development Programme (ADP) during July-April period of the FY2020-21, the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) report said.
It showed that all the government ministries and agencies executed only 49.09 per cent of their ADP, the lowest in more than a decade.
Although there was a big jump in ADP execution in a single month in April (7.17 per cent), the overall implementation rate for the 10-month period remained poor, officials said.
The government ministries and agencies spent only Tk 1.02 trillion or 49.09 per cent of the total Tk 2.09 trillion revised ADP outlay during the period under review.
Out of the total spending, the public entities used Tk 664.55 billion, 49.36 per cent from the total internal resources, while Tk 335.17 billion or 53.20 per cent from the total project aid.
Besides, the autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies spent Tk27.58 billion or 23.72 per cent of their total allocations during the period.
A senior IMED official said that even during the massive coronavirus impact in the FY2020, the ADP implementation rate in July-April period was slightly better than the current FY2021.
During the first 10 months last FY2020, the overall ADP implementation rate was recorded at 49.13 per cent.
The available official data showed that the project implementation rate in July-April this FY2022 was lowest in last 11 years.
The ministries and agencies implemented 54.94 per cent of the ADP during July-April in FY2019, 52.42 per cent in the same period in FY2018, 54.56 per cent in FY2017, 50 per cent in FY2016.
Similarly, they executed 56 per cent of the ADP in first 10 months in FY2015, 54 per cent in FY2014, 54 per cent in FY2013, and 55 per cent each in FY2012, the IMED data showed.
A senior Planning Commission (PC) official said the government's development works were still in the frail trajectory as the public agencies' project execution capacity are not improving over the years.
"The public agencies have failed to prove their capacity in project implementations," he told the FE requesting for anonymity.
We give reminder repeatedly to the executing agencies for completing their tender processing, procurement and other works in time, but most of the cases those fail resulting in the lower execution rate in July-April period, he added.
Meanwhile, the Power Division was the top performer in ADP execution as it had utilized Tk 152.90 billion, 59.43 per cent in July-April period, from its total Tk 257.28 billion allocations
