ADP implementation dips to 12-year low

Bangladesh registered a 27 per cent implementation of annual development programme (ADP) in the July-January period of the ongoing 2023-24 fiscal year, which is the lowest implementation rate in the previous 12 years.

Lack of resources and limitations in capacity are mainly to blame for the grim picture of ADP implementation.

Officials concerned said the revenue collection fell short of expectations in the current fiscal, resulting in a reduced share of government financing in the ADP projects.

The government itself is maintaining austerity in its spending, with only 25 per cent of government allocations spent in the first seven months of the year. On the flip side, the spending of project assistance increased by more than 30 per cent. It has been a consistent trend throughout the last two years, they noted.

According to the planning ministry's implementation, monitoring, and evaluation division (IMED), the spending on ADP implementations in the July-January period totaled at Tk 744.64 billion, when the total size of ADP is Tk 2746.74 billion, including that of autonomous entities. Among them, the ADP size under the planning ministry is Tk 2630 billion.

The current ADP contains 1,392 projects in total.

The IMED officials believe that there is no alternative to cutting the ADP allocations in the prevailing state of ADP implementation. Hence, an initial decision has been taken to reduce the ADP by Tk 180 billion

Towfiqul Islam Khan, a researcher at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), identified two critical issues that hinder ADP implementations – lack of resources and limitations in capacity, or infrastructural challenges.

The collections of tax and revenue by the national board of revenue (NBR) did not reach the expected level. The limitations in capacity include inability to implement projects, legal disputes regarding land, and conditions of overseas loans. Therefore, the project implementations have been historically slow in Bangladesh, he said.

The CPD researcher further noted the policymakers maintained constraints while using ADP allocations this year, rendering a slow pace in project implementation.

In the July-Januar period, some 13 out of 58 ministries and departments have managed to spend less than 20 per cent of their allocations.

The ministries and divisions are – Secondary and Higher Education Division, Health Services Division, Ministry of Shipping, Medical Education and Family Welfare Division, Posts and Telecommunication Division, Ministry of Social Welfare, Ministry of Public Administration, Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, Ministry of Commerce, Internal Resources Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The ADP implementation rate of July-January period is the lowest in the last 12 years. Earlier in the fiscal year 2011-12, the ADP implementation rate was 33 per cent in the first seven months. Considering the first seven months, the highest ADP implementation was recorded in 2012-13 fiscal year.