ADP implementation status

Obviously, this is an impossible task. And that's why the government is having to slash the original ADP of Tk 20,300 crore by Tk 2300 crore to hunker down to Tk 18,000 crore. Even this reduced target is notional like the original target was, and, therefore, it looks set to be unattainable. In hindsight, the ADP allocation for last year was originally set at Tk 19,200 crore. Down the line it was trimmed by TK 2100 crore to stand at Tk 17,100 crore. But the government ended up utilising Tk 15,000 crore! The question is: why such notional figures and targets were set in the first place when the ADP was announced? The explanation is given by an expert: although there was a pragmatic forecast of how much project aid would be available to the ADP 2003-04, the government high-ups asked to increase project aid by 59 percent. Thus the approved ADP had 'a weak base from the very beginning'.

The implementation of the locally funded projects has been 'satisfactory', but that of foreign aided funds remained at a low level, according to the finance minister. Thus, it has averaged out to a low ADP implementation overall, particularly given the fact that the expected foreign aid component was 59 percent of the whole programme.

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Who is to blame for the situation? The oft-repeated drawbacks are: faulty project design, harsh donor conditions, delay in appointment of consultants, complications in tendering and directors' inefficiency. All of these are rightful concerns, but to our understanding, so long as a certain political approach that is willy-nilly taken to ADP is eschewed, implementation of ADPs in the forms they appear will remain a far cry. ADP targets are often unrealistically set to aim a political mileage over the opposition; and secondly, selection of projects on political expediency rather than on purely economic development considerations has proved problematic, too. These shortcomings need overcoming in the first place.