Set against the backdrop of a series of poor fund utilisation and development project implementation performances from 2001-02 to 2005-06, one would have thought the planners have learnt their lesson to be now adopting a pragmatic ADP for 2006-07 fiscal. But no, the new ADP boasts a record total allocation of Tk 26,000 crore with an equally ambitious portfolio of 886 regular projects and another 428 projects without any allocation -- making for a total of 1314 projects in the ADP for 2006-07 fiscal.

Clearly, the temptation for grandstanding in an election year is too great to be easily set aside. Also, let's not forget, that the constituencies of the ruling party and alliance followers needed to be humoured with high profile money spinning projects with unspecified allocations to be nibbled into.

There is talk of austerity all around and most people had expected in line with what the Public Expenditure Review Commission (PERC) had recommended that the new ADP would contain a small manageable number of projects with a strong built-in safeguard for its timely implementation minus losses in terms of wastage and corruption.

As it happens now, resources will be spread thin on too many projects in the ADP 2006-07 with a slow rate of implementation and poor quality of work over all.

Education, power and gas sectors have sizeable allocations but attention seems concentrated on construction projects like roads, bridges, culverts, schools, markets etc. Although education receives the highest allocation, followed by power and gas, the human resource development should have been prioritised in a more direct sense of the term.

It is important that the new ADP were realistic and eminently doable simply because of the fact that it will fall on three governments to implement it viz. the present incumbent, the caretaker government and the newly elected government when it comes.