Editorial
ADP implementation
Business as usual
Lately, the whittling down of the Annual Development Programme (ADP), FY 2005-06, worth Tk 24,500 crore by eight percent has hogged news headlines. Development professionals wonder why must something featuring annually with routine regularity claim that much of media attention. We have to admit they have a point, to which we come later.But then the government's reasoning for slashing or downsizing an ADP might differ from one year to another, at least euphemistically speaking. This time it is put down to resource scarcity caused by overspending on petroleum coupled with less-than-expected revenue collection from July to February, FY 2005-06. Subsidy to the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), what with the oil price hikes at the consumer level, is one ostensible reason for the ADP cutback. Yet, this is arguable on the premise that the excise duty from oil imports did flow undiminished into the government coffer anyway. As for the revenue collection deficit, the shortfall is actually in relation to the targets set. It seems that a modest growth has been achieved in terms of revenue as compared with the figures in the corresponding periods of last fiscal. Last year, the ADP size projected at Tk 22,000 crore had to be reduced to Tk 20,500 crore. At the end of the year even that figure could not be utilised. So, going by the history of ADP implementation in our country, it's almost certain that even the current ADP, in its reduced form, will not be fully utilised. In the early part of the financial year, tendering and procurement processes took a big chunk of time. Then came the inefficiency of implementation machinery. The third factor of delay is attributable to a certain category of projects that couldn't be implemented during the rainy season. Since weather is a potential impediment, a high degree of planning discipline, backed by political will, is needed to help offset any straying of projects out of season. We have seen under-utilisation of fund allocations to different ministries. And, when they would be pressed for expediting it, the quality of fund use often falls. So, the issues are not so much fund mobilisation as they are under-utilisation and implementation failure. Political interference and bureaucratic red-tape are equally to blame for implementation shortfalls. Aid disbursements are sometimes delayed as well. Interactive efficiency and development commitments are the stuff of which breakthroughs are made.
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