Editorial
The familiar ADP implementation pattern
Time for review and change of gear
DESPITE the elected government's seriousness early in the day to push ADP implementation from the very beginning of the financial year which has been traditionally marked by a long-drawn-out warm-up phase, not much of a momentum has been generated this time in terms of utilisation of development allocations. Unfortunately the first six months have seen only 28 percent utilisation of the total ADP allocation. Resultantly, the government is faced with an impossible task of spending remainder 72 percent of the allocated resources.
Inevitably, the ADP will have to be slashed. What is to be noted here is that the downsizing is occurring not as a result of deficit in resources. On the contrary, revenue and foreign aid flows have been 'satisfactory'. Still, the government cannot afford any big cutback on the size simply because it needs to enhance public expenditure to generate employment and increase internal demands for a sustainable economy.
As it is, the ADP includes a large number of carry-over projects that keep burdening development planning, so that the physical targets will have to be met along with priority implementation of the new projects coupled with quality assurance. So, the overall need is to basically accelerate the pace of implementation.
Against this backdrop, the government is doing a mid-term review of the annual development plan. It is of utmost importance that the reappraisal-cum-readjustment exercise that the government is about to undertake should take into consideration the questions of meeting not just financial and physical targets of projects but also those of quality. For, it has been observed over the years that the ministries while accelerating the pace of implementation towards the end months may not be sufficiently deferential to quality aspects.
While project implementation can be greatly facilitated by delegation of authority to project directors in tandem with quick disbursement of funds, we believe for targeted performance of the ADP, the role of Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Planning Ministry will have to be recast and beefed up.
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