A World Bank-backed social- protection project has proposed tripling its budget to nearly Tk 28.14 billion, including higher consultancy costs and Tk 500 million for festival-related activities, drawing objections from the Planning Commission.
The Department of Social Services has sought up to a 33-per-cent increase in the monthly remuneration of individual consultants, officials said.
It has also proposed allocating Tk 500 million for ceremonies and festival-related activities under the project at a time when the government has tightened spending on several development programmes to ease fiscal pressures.
The proposals were included in the first revision of the "Strengthening Social Protection for Improved Resilience, Inclusion and Targeting (SSPIRIT)" project, which has been under implementation since July last year to establish a dynamic single registry of social safety net beneficiaries.
The revised project also aims to provide operational support, including a nationwide census, for implementing the government's election pledge to introduce the Family Card programme.
A Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) recently reviewed the proposal at a meeting chaired by Nasreen Jahan, Member (Secretary) of the Socio-Economic Infrastructure Division of the Planning Commission, sources said.
The PEC recommended dropping the proposed increase in consultants' remuneration and reducing allocations for several components, including festival-related expenditure.
Experts and economists questioned the rationale behind the proposed spending, saying further cost savings could be achieved through stricter scrutiny of the revised project.
An analysis of project documents shows that the consultancy allocation, originally set at Tk 21.02 million, has been proposed to increase to Tk 470.6 million under the revised project -- a more than twentyfold rise.
The increase is attributed to the appointment of additional consultants and proposed salary hikes for existing ones.
The monthly remuneration of the Procurement Specialist is proposed to rise to Tk 0.70 million in the first month from Tk 0.525 million. The average monthly remuneration over the 48-month project period is also proposed to increase to Tk 0.812 million from Tk 0.645 million.
However, consultancy fees under several other World Bank-supported projects generally range between Tk 0.4 million and Tk 0.5 million per month, raising questions over the justification for the higher rates.
The review also found that Tk 500 million had been proposed for festivals and related events under the Family Card programme.
The Department of Social Services said the funds would be used for various public engagement programmes and awareness campaigns.
The project already includes a separate allocation of Tk 250 million for promotional and advertising activities. Following discussions, the Planning Commission recommended reducing the proposed festival allocation to Tk 400 million.
The revised project also proposes Tk 800 million for training and Tk 5.5 billion for smart Family Cards and related ICT equipment.
Project Director Md Mosharraf Hossain said the proposal reviewed by the PEC was not an initial draft but a mature proposal prepared following extensive consultations and internal reviews.
"Retaining an allocation in the budget does not mean the entire amount must be spent. Since the Family Card programme is a government priority, allocations have been made based on assessed requirements," he said.
He added that assigning responsibility for the nationwide census to the Ministry of Social Welfare was a high-level policy decision and therefore beyond his authority to comment on.
Former Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Director General Dr Mustafa K Mujeri said donor-funded projects often require consultants to meet development partners' requirements, but both the number of consultants and their remuneration should be subject to rigorous scrutiny.
He said expenditure on Family Card-related events should have clearly defined objectives.
Spending on beneficiary identification, transparency and public awareness could be justified, but expenditure merely on ceremonies or celebrations would be difficult to defend under the current economic circumstances, he added.
The original cost of the SSPIRIT project was approximately Tk 9.04 billion.
The first revision proposes increasing the cost to nearly Tk 28.14 billion by adding components such as a nationwide census, smart Family Card distribution and the development of a Dynamic Social Registry.
Planning Commission officials said such extensive changes in the project's scope and cost raised questions about revising the existing scheme.
They argued that if the scope had changed so substantially, a new project should be prepared instead.
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