Editorial
Sluggish ADP implementation
Will the story ever change?
From July to October of the current fiscal year, only 13 percent of the Annual Development Plan (ADP) has been implemented, indicating a two percent increase from the level recorded in the first quarter of the last fiscal. But this is only notional; for, even this tiny increase seems worked off by the whittled down size of the current ADP itself. The size is 3.39 percent lower than that of the last fiscal year's original ADP.
Historically, the ADP implementation rate in the first quarter of a financial year has been chronically poor as this is the time-period over which the allocations come home to roost and all kinds of paper work pertaining to tendering and procurement barely begin. Basically, no coordinated time lines will have been put in place by then among the planning ministry, ERD and implementing ministries.
But the rate of implementation this fiscal is particularly slow as has been the case last year, owing to, it is said, lack of political nudges and pressure for development work during the interim care-taking period. Here is the dilemma. On the one hand, poor implementation of projects during political governments had been attributed to their being tainted by political considerations overriding economic ones and, thereby, getting little help in terms of fund placement by multilateral or bilateral financing agencies. On the other, the interest of politicians in projects seems to be a prerequisite for expediting project implementation.
The net result of slowly warming up to implementation is that the last few months of a fiscal see a crowding of project implementation activities with the consequence that either the end-work is poor of quality or physical targets have not been met, or maybe both.
When we hear the appalling news of 24 out of 48 ministries and divisions utilising zero to six percent of their allocations in the first quarter of the fiscal, something is evidently grossly wrong with the system. The ministries and divisions should each have an internal structure for implementation with a supervisory cell monitoring the progress or otherwise of project implementation and intervening wherever necessary to nudge the process forward. On an overarching basis, the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Planning Ministry should be strengthened and empowered with a high-profile, dynamic secretary to lead from the front and effectively carry out the designated functions of the division.
The under-implementation of the ADP ought to be a matter of concern for the major political parties who might like to include this concern in their manifestos with a concrete plan of action to address this.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments