In the first 10 months of FY21, all ministries and divisions spent Tk96,975.4 crore on the Annual Development Programme (ADP) implementation, which was only 46.34% of the total allocation.

To implement the revised ADP of Tk209,272 crore, Tk112,296.6 crore need to be spent in May and June, which experts say is impossible.

The Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) has been publishing monthly ADP review data since 2010-11. Since then, such a large amount of money never remained unspent in the first 10 months of a fiscal year.

Noted economist Dr Zahid Hussain said 85-98% of the revised ADP is usually implemented during this period but implementation might be a little less this time due to the pandemic.

He said implementation would gather pace towards the end of the fiscal year to register a high implementation rate.

But the quality of such work cannot be ensured and money is thus wasted, he said.

Data show 49% of the ADP was implemented till April amid the coronavirus outbreak in the last financial year. In 2018-19, it was 52%.

From 2010-11 to 2014-15, 56-58% of the ADP was implemented in the first 10 months of every year.

At the beginning of the current financial year, a Tk214,611 crore ADP was formulated, which was then reduced to Tk209,272 crore due to sluggish implementation.

Centre for Policy Dialogue Executive Director Dr Fahmida Khatun said the budget of a ministry for the next few years is usually specified in advance while priority expenditure is also marked.

"There can be no reason to not do work at the beginning of the year. Towards the end of the year, the same individual and the same organisation work. How they work so fast at that time can be questioned."

If they are sincere, they can speed up work from the very beginning, she said.  

The Health Services Division in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year spent around one-fourth of the around Tk12,000 crore ADP allocation. It now needs to spend Tk9,000 crore in May and June to utilise 100% of the allocation.

Fahmida said, "It is not possible to verify the accuracy if many work bills are submitted towards the end of the year. As a result, bills that should not be easily cleared are approved as well."

"Towards the end of the financial year, it is not possible to verify all field-level work. Thus, low-quality work bills get approval. This is a waste of people's tax money.