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Crawling ADP projects

Approval takes five times the normal time

REJAUL KARIM BYRON
Although the guideline dictates that approval of a project under the Annual Development Programme should not take more than 105 days, a recent government study found the development projects actually take 511 days on average, with the highest being 2,767 days or seven years, to get cleared.
In the study report, the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Department (Imed) of the planning ministry said the delay scales up the project cost, allows misuse of the fund, hinders proper use of foreign aid and causes spillover of money from one project to another.
Above all, it said, such dawdling makes a negative impact on the economy.
The IMED study was carried on 78 ADP projects in three sectors included and approved in the fiscal years of 2004-05, 2003-04 and
2002-03. Around 17 ministries were involved with the projects.
The research found the minis-
tries take excess time to complete all the four stages including planning, processing and getting the projects approved. The delaying continues even after the approval, during the implementation phase, due to lack of skill of the officials concerned.
The development project that took the highest time to be pro-
cessed belonged to the shipping ministry. The ministry submitted the project concept paper (PCP) for a foreign-funded dredging scheme on June 22, 1995 and it was finally
approved after an awesome 2,767 days, the report said.
Another PCP to complete stadiums in three divisional cities A PCP on building 61 rehabilitation centres in Rangamati was submitted on December 14, 1997. It was cleared after 1,571 days. Another PCP for constructing an access road from Patenga Road to MA Hannan International Airport in Chittagong was submitted on September 22, 1999. It was
approved after 1,393 days.
The Architecture Directorate filed a proposal for constructing its office building on June 27, 2002 but
received the green signal after 1,137 days.
In case of the 78 ADP projects studied, the average time overrun for approval was 511 days or 487 percent of the standard 105 days. Of them, 25 projects in the education and social sector took an average of 423 days, 28 in agriculture and rural development sector 534 days and the remaining 25 in industry and power sector 587 days to get the nod.
According to the government guideline, the first phase of processing a project concept -- the pre-Ecnec (Executive Committee of National Economic Council) or inter-ministerial meeting level -- should not take more than 30 days. But the study found this phase spent 144 days on an average.
At the second phase, the Ecnec or the planning minister is supposed to clear the PCP in 30 days, but in reality took 215 days on average.
At the third phase, the DPEC took an average of 87 days to okay the project proposal (PP) instead of the recommended 30 days.
At the final stage, in which the line ministry is supposed to approve the PP and issue an administrative circular within 15 days, in practice it took 83 days on an average.
The two stages found to have required the highest time to complete are the second, when the project is processed by the Ecnec wing under the Planning Commission, and the first, when it lies with the ministry or department concerned.
The study, which maintained that a more detailed survey is required to determine the comparative responsibilities of the factors for the delay, however identified some common causes.
It said the delay at Ecnec or PCP approval stage happens because Ecnec meetings are not held regularly. A range of causes is there for the procrastination at the final stage, when the project is under consideration of the minister concerned. The factors include files lying indefinitely on desks, change of governments bringing policy changes resulting in alteration of the project area and beneficiaries, and inefficiency and lack of training of the officials concerned.
However, an analysis of the last five years' ADP and the evaluation reports of the completed projects indicate that in case of government agencies related to infrastructure the highest dawdling takes place at the implementation stage.
For instance, preparation of biding documents and issuance of work order for the drilling part of Petrobangla and Sylhet Gas Field Infrastructure Development Project were delayed by two years and the surface facilities part by three years. In another instance, the BTTB Computer Centre and Data Communication System Establishment (Revised) project of the telecoms ministry took two additional years to complete.