The revised Annual Development Programme (ADP)’s implementation witnessed an 8.58 percentage point decline in the fiscal year 2022-23 compared to the previous fiscal year.
The ADP allocation rate in the last financial year was 84.16%, which was 92.74% in the previous fiscal year, according to the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED) report released on Thursday.
In the current economic situation, work on many projects has been halted due to the increase in costs of construction materials, said officials of the IMED of the planning ministry.
Besides, government austerity in project spending, considering the present economic state, limiting the use of funds on some projects has also limited the ADP implementation rate, they said.
The government has divided various projects into A, B, and C categories on a priority basis to tackle the economic crises. The less important projects have been put into the C category, and fund release for them has been halted temporarily, according to planning ministry officials.
There is a provision to release 75% of the fund for the B-category projects while for the A-category ones, 100% of the allocated fund can be released.
The IMED officials said the ministries and divisions are yet to develop their implementation capacity even though the government has devised various strategies to implement the ADP.
From complexities in tendering, land acquisition, and foreign fund sourcing to delays in administrative approval and appointment of project directors, lack of proper feasibility studies and coordination among the implementing agencies in the field – all have got in the way of ADP implementation, said IMED officials.
