ADP execution rate lower

63pc of funds spent in July-May

FHM Humayan Kabir 

The government spent almost 63 per cent of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) allocations in the 11 months to May of fiscal year (FY) 2017-18.

Planning Commission officials said the rate of the development budget spending is two percentage points lower than that of the corresponding period in FY 2016-17.

The project implementing agencies will have to spend the remaining 37 per cent of the Tk 1.57-trillion ADP outlay of  FY '18, they added.

The officials said the agencies had failed to improve their project execution capacity. The officials said the worst performance of some agencies, including railway ministry and bridges division, hamstrung attainment of the target in FY '18.

According to the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), ministries and agencies spent Tk 989.78 billion during the period of the outgoing fiscal. This was 62.81 per cent of the total ADP outlay.

In the corresponding period of FY '17, the implementation rate was 64.72 per cent with a total expenditure of Tk 772.04 billion. Initially, the government prepared a Tk 1.64-trillion ADP for FY '18. It was later trimmed down to Tk 1.57 trillion in the third quarter amid the lower execution rate.

An IMED official said the government agencies, for the first time, spent higher amounts of funds from the external resources compared to the internal ones.

They spent 71.47 per cent of the available project assistance from the overseas development partners during the period of July 2017 to May 2018.

The agencies, however, utilised only 58.97 per cent of funds from the government's own resources in the last 11 months.

The government allocated Tk 520.50 billion from external resources as project aid and Tk 963.31 billion from internal resources in the revised ADP.

The autonomous and semi-autonomous government agencies spent Tk 49.70 billion, 53.94 per cent of their aggregate allocations of Tk 92.13-billion in 11 months.

The official of the commission said government agencies usually spend higher funds from the internal resources than those of external ones every year. But there is an exception this time, he added.

The railway ministry spent only 30.81 per cent of its total allocations in the ADP and the bridges division 42 per cent in the aforesaid period.

The primary and mass education ministry spent 48 per cent and water resources ministry 55 per cent of their allocations.

The government agencies executed 90 to 93 per cent of ADP over the last five years.

• Courtesy: The Financial Express/June 21, 2018