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Q1 progress report on projects from next month

Rejaul Karim Byron
As part of a new exercise to ensure proper implementation of the annual budget, the finance ministry has early this month sought the first quarterly progress reports of all projects and programmes from all the ministries and departments.
The officials who man the projects have been directed to submit the reports next month so that these can be placed before the next parliament session, possibly in November.
The move has been initiated under Public Finance and Budget Management Act, 2009, which was passed in the budget session.
The finance ministry, who has prepared a list of 217 priority programmes as per the current budget, sent letters to secretaries of the ministries concerned asking for such quarterly progress reports.
Reminding the ministries' top officials, who are ex-officio the chief financial officers, of their failure in achieving project budget targets at the end of the financial year, these advisory letters pointed out that cost-effectiveness of government money and quality could not be ensured in different projects because of the hurried implementation of those.
A bigger portion of the budgetary allocation for most projects and programmes remained unspent, the letters also said. As a result, the government had to take the liabilities of internal loans.
The quarterly progress reports will help bring efficiency and discipline in project execution, the letters sent to the secretaries hopped.
This dispatch preceded a meeting with the secretaries last month, with the finance minister in the chair, where they were advised to open planning and budget cells in their respective ministries. The officials working with these cells should not be transferred, the meeting was told.
Available data during the last two decades show that annual development programmes (ADP) were often downsized on revision of every fiscal year's budget.
Sometimes, implementation of the revised budget has not been possible.
Investigations reveal one-fourths of the entire budgetary allocation is shown spent on the last day of every fiscal year. Revelations are there that even programmes under any revenue budget remained unimplemented despite various government steps.
Officials said the past failures have prompted the government to move for the first time to enact a law in parliament to expedite implementation pace.
The projects the finance ministry listed include settingup of about 2500 community clinics, 5 new medical colleges, 6 health technology institutes and 12 nursing institutes and formulation of patient welfare fund policy.
Besides, connecting Bangladesh with 2nd submarine cable under the telecommunication ministry and bringing all upazilas under internet in five years in addition to widening networks for 6 divisional cities and other 23 district towns.
Also, formulation of the national ICT road map and establishment of an expatriate bank are on the list of projects.