Jul-Feb ADP execution lowest in 14 years

The government agencies are not seemingly functioning properly as their development programme-implementation rate in the first eight months of the current financial year was the lowest in 14 years, officials said on Monday.

The annual development programme (ADP) execution rate from July to February of FY25 was 24.27 per cent, 6.91 percentage points lower compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) data shows.

Although there was a setback during last year's July-August uprising, the agencies have so far failed to improve their very poor implementation capacity, said a senior IMED official.

Last month, they implemented only 2.76 per cent of the ADP, the lowest in the recent past, he added.

One of the chiefs of the Planning Commission echoed him about last month's performance, highlighting the lowest July-February rate in 14 years.

Meanwhile, IMED data shows the year-on-year ADP implementation rate was never lower than 24.27 per cent since FY12.

The month-on-month ADP execution rate over the last few months was lower than the corresponding period of the previous years, officials said.

During July-February of FY25, the agencies spent Tk 675.53 billion, while the total ADP outlay for this fiscal year is Tk 2.78 trillion.

In this period of FY24, they spent Tk 856.02 billion, 31.17 per cent of the Tk 2.74 trillion ADP outlay, IMED data shows.

According to IMED, the agencies during this period of FY23 spent Tk 821.7 billion, 32.10 per cent of the Tk 2.56 trillion ADP.

The ADP implementation rate fell during the July-February period of FY25 as some big ministries, including health, shipping, and civil aviation and tourism, and divisions, including secondary and higher education and bridges, performed poorly, an analysis of The Financial Express has found.

"The ministries and other agencies have been failing to improve their capacity over the years even after receiving repeated reminders to expedite their development projects. It is unfortunate," said a senior IMED official.

In FY25, the government formulated a Tk 2.78 trillion ADP outlay to implement some 1,353 development projects.

The FE analysis found the ADP implementation rate during the July-February period was 32.10 per cent in FY23, 35.80 per cent in FY22, 33.83 per cent in FY21, 37.26 per cent in FY20, 39.13 per cent in FY19, and 38.01 per cent in FY18.

A senior IMED official said they monitor and evaluate the implementation of the ongoing projects from time to time and project directors are asked to expedite work.

"The chief adviser and Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) meeting have also given some instructions for expediting project execution by avoiding inflated costs and time overrun," he said.

Amid the poor execution rate, the Planning Commission on March 12 revised down the ADP outlay to Tk 2.26 trillion.

During the first eight months of FY25, both divisions - health services, and medical education and family welfare - of the health ministry performed the worst as they implemented only 5.48 per cent and 0.41 per cent of their respective ADP.

The shipping ministry was the second-worst performer as it utilised only 14.13 per cent of its ADP allocation, while it was 17.98 per cent for the Secondary and Higher Education Division and 18.88 per cent for the Bridges Division.

The execution rates of the aforementioned weak ministries are much lower than the average implementation rate of 24.27 per cent, IMED data shows.

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