IMED blames faulty feasibility studies

Implementation of government development projects by ministries and divisions suffers years of delays as they, in most cases, are formulated without proper feasibility studies and technical designs.

What may initially start off as a project for constructing one school or one road may undergo revisions for more than once afterwards for the inclusion of components, such as additional schools and roads.

This is occurring despite guidelines from the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), observed the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the planning ministry in a report.

This deprives people from availing the benefits and as a whole has a negative impact on the progress of annual development programme (ADP), it said.

Therefore, it will not be reasonable to process the approval of projects formulated without proper surveys and technical designs, it said.

The IMED submitted the report in a review meeting on progress of the ADP in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year.

Planning Minister MA Mannan chaired the meeting, attended by representatives of 10 ministries receiving the highest ADP allocations. The planning ministry expressed dissatisfaction over delays in implementation of the ADP and issued warnings on the ministries.

The report stated that during the implementation stage following approval, almost every project is revised several times for time extensions.

In many cases, projects are initially taken up on a small scale but once the approval is given, revisions are sought for the addition of components.

A total of 1,886 projects are being implemented under the revised ADP for fiscal 2020-21 involving an estimated cost of Tk 17,25,657 crore.

Of the amount, Tk 4,64,528 crore has been spent till June 2020.

A total of Tk 2,09,271 crore has been allocated for the revised ADP of 2021.

Excluding the allocation for the current fiscal year, another Tk 10,51,856 crore is required for the 1,886 projects. The money needs to be allocated through the ADP of the coming fiscal years.

The report opined that it may take more than five years to complete these ongoing projects even if no new project was taken or cost increased.

The National Economic Council (NEC) in a meeting on May 18 proposed including 609 new projects that were yet to get approvals and allocations in the new ADP of 2021-22.

The IMED stated that the planning ministry wings dealing with different government divisions should give special emphasis on feasibility studies and ensure the required fiscal space while approving these projects.

The IMED in its report also stressed on the need for taking up new projects after the timely completion of those that had been already adopted.

On Sunday's meeting, questions were raised over the poor performance of the health services division in implementing the ADP.

According to the report, the health services division spent only 31.38 per cent of its allocation under the ADP in 11 months till May.

Officials of the division who attended the meeting said there were some problems at the beginning of the year but later progress was achieved at the ground level in different projects and they expected a good advancement by the end of the year.