ADP execution hits record 18-yr high amid questions

The country’s annual development programme (ADP) implementation rate has hit an 18-year high, but a sudden rise in ADP spending in the last month of fiscal year has thrown the effectiveness of ADP execution into question.   

Economists and experts slammed the surge in ADP expenditure at the fag end of the fiscal year, describing it as abnormal. 

They also said this spending pattern might actually jeopardize true development work. 

The ADP implementation rate reached 94.32 percent in fiscal year 2018-19, with the total ADP spending amounting to Tk166,593 crore in the whole year.

However, a staggering 28 percent of the ADP allocation was disbursed in June 2019 alone.     

Disbursement of development project funds should be scaled down during monsoon as frequent downpours usually hinder infrastructural development work, according to experts. 

But as it is evident, a sizeable portion of last year’s ADP allocations was spent in June, the second half of which marks the beginning of monsoon. 

Former governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr Salehuddin Ahmed said the jump in fund disbursement stems from the tendency to put off ADP implementation until the end of the fiscal year. 

“Before the end of the year, they seem to be in a rush to spend a lot without careful judgement,” he said. 

The Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) – which is the ADP monitoring authority – said the ministries and divisions together spent 68 percent of ADP funds from July to May of the previous fiscal year, while the highest spending (26.32 percent) was recorded in the month of June alone.  

The ministries and divisions have failed to abide by the prime minister’s instruction to start implementing ADP since the beginning of fiscal year. 

IMED Secretary Abul Mansur admitted that poor management was one of the reasons why ADP could not be fully implemented last year.  

“Poor management included frequent transfer of project directors, land scarcity, poor performance of IMED, and inadequate technical know-how. We also recommended that the authorities concerned take initiatives for complete execution of ADP,” he added.