A little bit of accountability can go a long way

We are baffled by the continued failure of public authorities leading to frequent cost and time overruns in various projects, despite the prime minister's clear directives in the past to check questionable project revisions—including the directive that a project cannot be revised more than three times. As the prime minister-led Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) convened its first meeting of the year, seven of the 10 projects placed at the meeting were set for revisions. According to a report by this newspaper on January 4, when the 10 projects tabled at the meeting were first conceived, they were supposed to cost Tk 3,099 crore. Now that has ballooned up to Tk 14,961 crore.

In terms of time, the authorities sought extensions ranging from a year to a full decade for some of the projects—and that, too, after several revisions. For instance, one of the seven projects—the Ashrayan 2 project to alleviate poverty and homelessness—was taken up in 2010 for completion in June 2014. It has gone through three revisions and is now seeking extra time and money again. The project was initially estimated to cost Tk 1,169.18 crore, but that has now increased to a massive Tk 11,142.8 crore. Another project called BEPZA Economic Zone Mirsarai-1st Phase, which is aimed at attracting domestic and foreign investment, is seeking additional expenditure of Tk 552 crore and two more years; the original project cost was Tk 750 crore and the completion date was June last year.

That the authorities have asked for such a massive increase in expenditures at the first meeting of the year is deplorable. Similarly, the delay we see in project completion year after year is truly shocking. Besides the cost increase that it leads to—which the taxpayers have to bear—and the benefit that it deprives the people of, the fact that the authorities have failed to make any improvements despite the PM's directives is unacceptable. And the reason for this, we believe, is the lack of accountability that we see when it comes to repeated project revisions. We have barely—if ever—seen any of the public officials or private consultants involved in these delayed projects being reprimanded in any way, shape or form. That must change if such huge time/cost overruns are to be avoided.

In line with that, we call on the government to get the message across to all project officials that they must change their business-as-usual attitude. And if they don't, they should be held accountable for failing to deliver to the public what they promise in their initial project proposals.