The annual development programme implementation stood at 84.16 percent in the last fiscal 2022-2023 amid the ongoing global economic crisis.
Implementation of the revised Annual Development Program (ADP) in the fiscal 2022-23 has decreased by 8.58 percentage points as compared to the previous fiscal year which was 92.74 percent, according to the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED) report released on Thursday.
IMED Officials said due to the economic crisis caused by the corona virus pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, high inflation and a shortage of dollars, the government is cautious in implementing the project. As a result, overall utilization of public funds has decreased.
For the past 3 years, the government has suspended implementation of low-priority projects to free up funds for more productive sectors, they added.
In the current economic situation, work on many projects has been halted due to the increase in costs of construction materials, said an official of the planning ministry.
Besides, government austerity in project spending, considering the present economic state, limiting the use of funds on some projects has also limited the ADP implementation rate, they said.
The IMED officials said the ministries and divisions are yet to develop their implementation capacity even though the government has devised various strategies to implement the ADP.
From complexities in tendering, land acquisition, and foreign fund sourcing to delays in administrative approval and appointment of project directors, lack of proper feasibility studies and coordination among the implementing agencies in the field – all have got in the way of ADP implementation, they added.
However, the government has divided various projects into A, B, and C categories on a priority basis to tackle the economic crises. The less important projects have been put into the C category, and fund release for them has been halted temporarily, according to planning ministry officials.
There is a provision to release 75 percent of the fund for the B-category projects while for the A-category ones, 100 percent of the allocated fund can be released.
