Changes in ADP implementation guidelines on the cards

The government has decided to bring about changes in criteria of formulating and implementing projects against the backdrop of chronic slow progress of the annual development programme, officials said.
They said a committee, headed by the cabinet secretary, had been appointed for preparing recommendations on new guidelines for projects approval and their implementation.
The latest decision by the government reflected the longstanding demand from experts and donor agencies to increase the ADP implementation rate by improving efficiency of the project implementing agencies.
Former caretaker government adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said the capacity of the implementing agencies needed to be increased on urgent basis by changing the decades-old criteria.
The ADP implementation rate in the first seven months is lowest in last eight years, he noted.
Officials said finance minister AMA Muhith while reviewing the foreign-funded projects in a meeting last month decided to appoint the committee.
They said the cabinet secretary will review the existing guidelines of the economic relations division for the foreign-funded projects and planning commission for the local-funded projects before proposing the changes.
The committee chief will be aided by principal secretary, and other secretaries like those of  finance division, internal resources division, legislative and parliamentary affairs division, local government division and mega project implementing ministries and divisions.
The committee will place the recommendations in three months time.
The ADP implementation rate slumped to its eight-year low in the first seven months of the current fiscal year as only 28 per cent ADP worth Tk 1,00,997 crore was implemented in July-January of 2015-2016.
During the same period of 2014-15, the implementation rate was 32 per cent of the ADP worth Tk 86,000 crore. Finally, the implementing agencies could execute 91 per cent of revised ADP worth Tk 77,836 crore in the last fiscal year.
Economist Wahiuddin Mahmud raised the question about quality of the projects, especially those are linked to the construction related infrastructure.
He said efficiency of the implementing agencies was poor.
WB in its public expenditure review on Bangladesh released in December said there were around 106 development projects which would take 11-100 years to implement while 32 projects would take more than 100 years to complete.
WB which did not name those projects also said some projects in the ADP programme received allocations year after year but without any expenditure.
The present government has failed to implement many crucial development projects with experts saying that repeated extension of deadlines for completing priority projects resulted in unacceptable cost escalation.
The projects include upgradation of the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway into a four-lane highway. The delays in implementation forced the government to increase the costs to Tk 3,816.94 crore from Tk 3,190.94 crore.
At least three extension of deadlines for the completion of the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover since 2014 resulted in project cost escalation by 57 per cent to Tk 1,218.89 crore from Tk 772.7 crore.
The delays escalated the estimated cost of the tannery shifting project to Tk 1,079 crore from Tk 545.36 crore.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net