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Stop anomalies or face fund cut

Saifur tells secretaries

Staff Correspondent
Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman yesterday warned of a cut in budget allocations if the secretaries fail to take immediate steps against serious financial irregularities found duringauditin theirministries.
He also said external financial specialists would be appointed to certain ministries to put brakes on financial irregularities and facilitate speedy project implementation.
Saifur added the new budget has a separate allocation for appointment of such external specialists, which will be used to strengthen internal financial control of the
ministries.
All the ministries should form their own budget designing and monitoring committees and audit committees, he observed.
Saifur talked to the secretaries at the Cabinet Division in the Secretariat as part of the government move to implement the Tk 58,000 crore new budget.
"It is often seen that the ministries do not work till December and all work begin after that. As a result, budget implementation suffers," he toldthesecrctaries.
"But this time we want you to set all the plans by September so that from then on we can move ahead
with the budget plans," he added.
Cabinet Secretary Saadat Husain told the meeting, "Poorly performing ministries tend to get away unpunished. We should see whether something can be done against them."
Project implementation depends on the co-ordinated roles of ministers, secretaries and the directors-general of the projects, Saadat said and urged the finance minister to organise a meeting with all the ministers to ensure better coordination.
The finance minister presented at the meeting statistics on how
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much foreign aid certain ministries have taken for project implementation and to what effect between July 2003 and May 2004.
According to the statistics, the post and telecommunications ministry took 13 percent of their foreign aid allocation, health ministry 29 percent, education ministry 38 percent, power division 40 percent, communication ministry 49 percent, primary and mass education ministry 51 percent, agriculture ministry 56 percent, local government ministry 60 percent and energy ministry 65 percent.
The secretaries spoke about difficulties in complying with the public procurement guideline of the government, donors' conditions, hartals and complexities arising from tender bids.
Saifur said the public procurement guideline will soon be made into an act with some changes to help the ministries.
He asked the secretaries to hold meetings with the donors in the beginning of the fiscal year and get them clarify on the conditions set against the projects they want to fund. If the conditions are unrealistic, the ministries should sign deals on the table.