Tk 719cr of taxpayers' money unspent as govt officials' foreign trips shelved

Around Tk 719 crore in taxpayer money was unused in the last fiscal year because of the cancellation of foreign trips of government officials and the delay in tender processes, both owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Of the unspent fund, Tk 67 crore was related to foreign aid-funded projects and Tk 652 crore was linked to government-run schemes, according to a report of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED).

The report, based on the implementation of the 2020-21 budget, was placed at a meeting of the National Economic Council on February 2.

Every year, officials from ministries and divisions make trips overseas, costing a large amount of taxpayers' money from both revenue and development budgets.

The government allocated nearly Tk 5,000 crore to meet the expenses of foreign trips of government officials for the fiscal years of 2019-20 and 2020-21, according to the finance ministry.

In some cases, project implementing agencies put in place provisions for foreign tours and include government officials even when they have nothing to do with the projects.

For example, three government officials went to the US and the UK using funds from a project of the Bangladesh Water Development Board in Cox's Bazar in February, although none of them was directly involved with the scheme.

The budgetary allocation aimed at facilitating foreign trips has risen every year due to the growing enthusiasm among the officials to travel abroad. But there has been criticism over their frequent tours as such trips yield no results on many occasions.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself has spoken against such trips on a number of occasions.

But it was the coronavirus pandemic that led to a significant drop in spending on foreign trips over the last two years as international travels came to a halt amid global travel bans and lockdowns across the world.

Many training programmes, workshops, study programmes, and seminars abroad have been postponed because of the global health crisis.

As a result, the Economic Relations Division could not spend Tk 7 crore from the foreign fund portion because of the cancellation of several academic programmes in Japan.

Similarly, nearly Tk 24 crore remained unused at the Statistics and Information Division in FY21, as it was unable to host seminars and training programmes, at home and abroad, due to the pandemic.

The unutilised amount for the Planning Division was Tk 7 crore, Tk 11 crore for the Finance Division and Tk 18 crore for the Social Welfare Division.

IMED data showed Tk 652 crore could not be spent from the government portion of the budget due to the cancellation of foreign trips and the delays in the tender process.

The Election Commission Secretariat could not use Tk 190 crore in FY21 as one of its projects aimed at foreign training came to a halt.

Similarly, the Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Ministry had Tk 137 crore unutilised, while the legislative and parliamentary affairs division could not spend the entire amount of Tk 1.63 crore.

In order to cut foreign trips amid lower revenue collection, the finance ministry, in FY21, suspended 50 per cent of this fiscal year's allocation for the foreign trips of public servants and ordered to abandon all routine tours.

The money can only be spent for emergency purposes and unavoidable circumstances, it said in a notice.

When contacted, Prof Shamsul Alam, state minister for planning, said, "It has been better that foreign trips cost less. It's a good sign. It should be carried on."

He thinks foreign trips are not always productive.

"To rein in expenditures, the authorities are scrutinising proposals carefully. If deemed unnecessary, we cancel proposals."

Towfiqul Islam Khan, a senior research fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, recommended the authorities show restraint in approving such proposals.

He says the government is struggling to raise revenue owing to business slowdown.

"Under the circumstances, the authorities must be concerned about unnecessary foreign trips and should make every effort to cut costs." "If trips are truly necessary, they should go ahead. Otherwise, they should be scrapped."