Health gets low ADP allocation as it lacks implementing capacity

The government has not increased the allocation for the health sector in the Annual Development Programme for the next fiscal year as the sector does not have the implementation capacity.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the Health Services Division has failed to spend 75% of the allocation in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) in 10 months of the current fiscal year.

At the same time, the Medical Education and Family Welfare Division could not spend 50% of the allocation.

So, the government has allocated only 7.68% of the ADP to the sector. The allocation was 7.55% in the revised ADP for the current financial year.

The government has approved the ADP for the fiscal 2021-22 with the utmost importance on projects in the transportation and communication sectors aimed at alleviating poverty, accelerating GDP growth and creating employment.

The sector has received more than a quarter of the total development allocation.

A meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) approved the new ADP. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting from her official residence Ganabhaban.

Ministers and secretaries attended the meeting from the NEC conference room in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.

At the end of the meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan briefed the media and said the size of the approved new ADP is Tk225,324 crore.

Of this, Tk137,299.91 crore will be provided from government funds and Tk88,024.23 crore will come from foreign assistance.

The new ADP is 9.84% higher than the original ADP of the current financial year and 14% higher than the revised one.

In the next financial year, projects worth Tk11,469 crore will be implemented with the own funding of autonomous organisations and corporations.

The size of the ADP including projects of autonomous agencies and corporations is Tk236,793 crore.

The planning minister said the ADP has given utmost importance to the projects involving the people.

He also said the prime minister has directed the authorities to give utmost importance to the implementation of the projects affected by the pandemic.

Besides, the prime minister has emphasising the allocation for research in various sectors such as health and agriculture.

In this regard, the planning minister said, it is not enough to just allocate for research.

"This allocation must also be used. For this, there must be researchers too," he added.

Sectors with the highest allocation  

The transport and communications sector has received the highest allocation of Tk61,721 crore or 27.39% in this year's ADP.

The power and energy sector has received the second-highest allocation this time due to the Rooppur nuclear power project.

The Rooppur nuclear power plant has been in the science and technology sector for so long but this is the first time it has been added to the power and energy sector.

As before, the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission under the Ministry of Science and Technology will implement the project.

The allocation for this sector is Tk45,867.84 crore, which is 20.36% of the total ADP.

Besides, the housing and community facilities have received an allocation of Tk23,747 crore or 10.54%, education Tk23,178 crore or 10.29% and health Tk17,307 crore or 7.67% of the total ADP.

Out of 15 sectors, social security has received the lowest 0.73% allocation of the ADP.

Ministries and divisions with the highest allocation

As a ministry and department, the Local Government Division has received the highest allocation in this year's ADP. It has received an allocation of Tk33,896 crore. After that, the Road Transport and Highways Department got the second-highest allocation of Tk28,042 crore.

Besides, the Power Division has received an allocation of Tk25,349 crore, the Ministry of Science and Technology Tk20,634 crore, the Ministry of Railways Tk13,558 crore and the Health Services Division Tk13,000 crore.

Projects with the highest allocation

The Rooppur nuclear power plant has received the highest allocation of Tk18,426 crore as a single project.  

Another project in the power sector, the Matarbari Power Station construction project, has received the second-highest allocation of Tk6,162 crore.

The fourth primary education programme in the education sector has received the third highest allocation of Tk5,054 crore.

Metrorail (MRT-6), Padma Rail Link, Bangabandhu Rail Bridge, Padma Bridge, Dhaka-Ashulia flyover have received the next highest allocations.

Number of ADP projects  

A total of 1,427 projects have been included in the ADP with allocation. Of these, 1,308 are investment projects and 118 are technical projects. Besides, 89 projects of self-financing of autonomous agencies and corporations have received allocations.

Unapproved new projects

The number of unapproved projects in the next ADP is 596 which will receive approval in phases. Besides, 1,291 government-funded projects were proposed by different ministries for inclusion in the list of unapproved projects.

To facilitate foreign aid, another Tk141 crore has been kept for the unapproved projects.