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Govt uses 38pc of ADR in 8 months

Reiaul Karim Byron
The government was able to spend only 38 percent of the money allocated for annual development programme (ADP) in the first eight months of the current fiscal year due to less use of foreign aid. However, such spending was37percentinthe same period last fiscal year.
In the third year of the present government, a big amount of about Tk 46,000 crore was allocated for the development projects. But given the size of the allocation this year, the government could spend only Tk 17,519 crore in the first eight months.
The ministries and divisions showed much interest in spending the government's own fund, and spent a very little of the foreign aid.
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They spent 46 percent of the government's own fund in the first eight months - - the highest in four years.
However, foreign aid utilisation was 26 percent of their allocation — lowest in four years.
An official of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) said a big amount of foreign aid was allocated for the Padma Bridge project. As the amount could not be spent, foreign aid utilisation remained much lower this year.
The health ministry used only 19 percent of its allocation in eight months.
However, another ERD official said, in the recent times they held joint meetings with both ministries and development partners to find ways how to increase the utilisation of foreign aid.
A meeting of the Local Consultative Group, a joint platform of the government and the development partners, will be held next month to discuss ways to speed up the use of foreign aid.
The ERD officials expect the utilisation of foreign aid to increase in the coming months.
According to Implementation Monitoring & Evaluation Division (IMED) statistics, some big ministries and divisions are lagging behind in spending their allocated foreign fund.
Bridge Division, which is lagging far behind others, could spend only 9 percent of its allocation in eight months.
An IMED official said, due to the complexities of the government with the World Bank the fund for the Padma Bridge project has remained uncertain.
In the revised budget, the allocation for the Bridge Division is being cut substantially.
Among other 10 big ministries and divisions, health and family welfare ministry spent 30 percent of its allocation, railway division 33 percent, and water resource ministry spent 34 percent of the total allocation.
Some other ministries and divisions also showed low spending. Of these, the shipping ministry spent 18 percent, information and communication technology 16 percent, liberation war affairs ministry 12 percent, youth and sports ministry 7 percent, industries ministry 4 percent, foreign affairs ministry 3 percent, and civil aviation and tourism minis-