The government is likely to allocate inadequate funds for hundreds of new projects which got approval in last 2-3 months of the past government, officials said on Friday.
They said the Planning Commission (PC) is allocating as less as Tk 10 million to Tk 500 million against many of those fresh projects in the current fiscal year (FY) 2018-19 due to inadequate funds in the development budget.
They are forced to allocate less funds than demanded by the ministries and divisions for their fresh projects due to unavailability of adequate funds in the development budget, said some PC officials.
They know that less fund allocation against higher demand will ultimately affect execution of the projects, they added.
A senior PC official said the last government approved hundreds of projects during a period of 2-3 months which now could be affected at their initial stage of implementation.
The PC is working to revise the Annual Development Programme (ADP) of the current FY 2019, reallocating money to the ongoing projects and making a fresh fund outlay for the newly-approved projects.
Within the two-month period (September 11 to November 07, 2018), the past government endorsed about 175 projects, mostly on political consideration, at a total cost of Tk 2.32 trillion.
A senior PC official said they had been able to allocate funds to the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) at a range between Tk 10 million and Tk 500 million for many newly approved projects despite their higher fund demands in the current development budget.
Another official said they had been forced to allocate less funds than the demands of the Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED) for many of their schemes due to lack of adequate funds in the national budget.
An RHD official said although they had sought necessary funds for the newly approved projects from the PC in the upcoming RADP for the current FY2019, the Commission is putting pressure on them to cut the demand due to inadequate funds in the development budget.
He said if the government does not provide adequate funds, implementation of their projects will be hindered seriously.
Dr Selim Raihan, economics professor at Dhaka University, said if the projects are taken up without proper feasibility study, those will be affected from many fronts.
"Since the past government at its last moment in office endorsed hundreds of projects within a short time on political consideration, those must be affected," he told the FE.
He added: "For example, if a three-year tenure project with a Tk 10 billion cost gets only Tk 100 million in its first year of execution time, how it will be completed within its next two years' tenure? So, the project's cost and time will be overrun and expected return from it will not be furnished."
Acknowledging it, a member of the PC said since the government has fund constraints, the new projects ultimately will not get adequate allocation which will be the cause of time and cost overrun.
Ultimately, the people will not get benefits from the projects as their execution will be delayed, he told the FE preferring anonymity.
