Development projects go at slow pace

The pitiable state of many highways ahead of Eid-ul-Azha could have been averted had the road transport and highways division utilised its allocation for July-August.

Although there were no fund constraints, the division spent only Tk 52 crore in the first two months of the fiscal year, which is just 1 percent of its allocation for the year, according to data from the planning ministry.

The figure is a decline of 67 percent from the same period of fiscal 2013-14. The division spent Tk 159 crore between July and August of the last fiscal year, which was 5 percent of the allocation for the year.

The roads and highways division is not an outlier: in the first two months of the fiscal year, the ministries and divisions together spent only 5 percent of the Annual Development Programme.

The development is all the more puzzling as in the same period last fiscal year, when the country was embroiled in political turmoil, they managed to spend 6 percent of the allocation for the year.

The ministries and divisions spent Tk 3,816 crore between July and August this fiscal year, down about 6.5 percent year-on-year.

Ten large ministries and divisions got 72 percent of the year's ADP budget Tk 80,315 crore. Curiously, of them, six spent below the 5 percent average in the first two months.

Zaid Bakht, research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, said mega-projects got the highest focus in the current fiscal year's ADP. 

Such projects see various hiccups in the initial stages by way of land acquisition, design finalisations and so on, which might explain the slow expenditure thus far.

Still, he recommended the government concentrate on speedy implementation of the big projects, as it will have a knock-on positive effect on the other projects.

The science and technology ministry could not spend a single taka in the July-August period, while the water resources ministry managed to spend only 0.31 percent of its allocation.

The primary and mass education ministry spent 3 percent, the health and family welfare ministry 2 percent and the education ministry 3 percent of their allocation.

The highest spender in terms of amount was the Bridges Division, which spent 8 percent of its allocation. A major allocation of the division went to the Padma Bridge project, a fast-track project of the government.

The local government division, which usually stays ahead in expenditure, spent only 10 percent of its allocation in the first two months. During the same period in fiscal 2013-14, it managed 15 percent.