ADP spend far away from target

Ministries and divisions face an uphill task in June as they will have to spend about one-third of the development budget in one month to reach the government's ambitious ADP target.

In the first 11 months of the outgoing fiscal year, they together spent Tk 98,978 crore against the revised full-year allocation of Tk 157,594 crore for the annual development programme (ADP), according to the Implementation Monitoring & Evaluation Division (IMED).

This means Tk 58,616 crore will have to be spent in the last month of 2017-18 to achieve the target, way higher than the average monthly expenditure of Tk 8,998 crore in the fiscal year.

Historically, ADP spending rate remains low in the beginning of a fiscal year and it gets momentum in the second half of the year.

A planning ministry official said the physical work of many projects is going on, but the payments are made through cheques in the last month of the fiscal year. As a result, the spending rate goes up finally.

Another official, however, said the revised target has never been achieved.

He said at best 90 percent of the target may be reached as per IMED data, and if data from the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General are taken into account the ADP spending rate will be even lower.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith and Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal have said the implementation rate in 2017-18 will be much higher than in previous years.

However, IMED data showed the ministries and divisions are lagging behind this year as well compared to the last fiscal year in terms of implementation. In July-May, 62.81 percent of the allocation for the ADP was implemented, down from 64.72 percent a year earlier.

The use of the government's own fund was Tk 56,807 crore in the 11-month period, which is 58.97 percent of the total allocation. It was 66.39 percent in the same period a year ago.

On the other hand, 71.47 percent or Tk 37,201 crore of the allocation from foreign funds was spent, up from 58.05 percent a year earlier.

An official of the Economic Relations Division said the ministries and divisions are well ahead in using foreign aid and $6 billion may finally be disbursed in 2017-18. The amount was $3.39 billion in 2016-17.

Development spending by state-owned enterprises was Tk 4,970 crore, which is 53.94 percent of the budget they have received. The spending rate was 82.86 percent in the same time last fiscal year.

For 2017-18, the government had originally set aside Tk 1.64 lakh crore for development spending, but it was revised down to Tk 1.58 lakh crore in March.

Of the 15 large ministries and divisions that account for 85.67 percent of the allocation, only four managed to expend higher than the average amounts in the July-May period.

They are the power division (91.93 percent), the local government division (70.86 percent), the science and technology ministry (75.13 percent), and the housing and public works ministry (74.25 percent).

The rest spent less than the average.

Of them, the road transport and highways division spent 60.76 percent of its allocation, the energy and mineral resources division 59.01 percent, the railways ministry 30.81 percent, the primary and mass education ministry 48.27 percent, the health service division 57.93 percent, and the bridges division 42.09 percent.

The water resources ministry could manage to spend 55.49 percent of the allocation it received while the secondary and higher education division used 51.15 percent, the information and communication technology division 61.09 percent, and the shipping ministry 52.52 percent.

The Prime Minister's Office spent half the fund it has been allocated.

The PMO entered the list of 15 large ministries after the ADP revision in March.

The PMO's original allocation was Tk 983 crore, but it was revised upwards to Tk 4,124 crore (including block allocation).