Editorial
ADP cut
Poor implementation the Achilles' heels
It is a sad commentary on the efficiency of the state machineries, particularly those that are involved in implementing the development projects that nearly 10 percent of the total ADP outlay may have to be slashed because of failure to implement the projects. We understand that the cut will be made from the foreign component of the allocation. And this despite the fact that the Prime Minister had advised the relevant ministries at the very beginning of the financial year to do everything necessary for quicker implementation of projects.
This holds an unsettling prediction of the future of the current fiscal's ADP - one is not sure how much of the annual development project will ultimately get implemented by the end of the current fiscal year. The cut is all the more undesirable when one considers the success of the last fiscal's annual development programmes where more than 90 percent of the plan was implemented, although a third of the expenditure was made in the very last month.
The ADP is increasingly driven by local funds, which is as it should be; and as the statistics illustrate, use of local funds have increased by 44 percent as compared to last year. One of the reasons perhaps has to do with the fact that the development partners' attaching more and more conditions to loans. If there has been 23 percent decline in the utilisation of foreign funds we must evaluate whether that was due donor conditionality alone. Very interestingly, whereas the government is contemplating cutting around 20 percent of the foreign funds, there is demand for an extra 6000 crore, that different ministries want but from local source only, and which the government has declined to provide.
There are several things that the planning ministry must clarify. Given that by the end of the first half of the current fiscal year only 27 percent of the plan has been implemented, can the plan be accomplished, even as altered?
Very interesting too is the fact that 80 percent of the ADP layout is meant for procurement only, and it is, therefore, difficult to rationalise the shortfall when the government has brought in changes in public purchase procedures to make procurement easier despite the criticism it had to face, given the propensity to corruption and proclivity to favour party men in awarding contracts
Given that at every ECNEC meeting the PM reviews the progress of ADP implementation of various ministries, the state of implementation should have been better. In this regard we feel that the Implementation, Monitoring & Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Planning Ministry should be revitalised and that project directors of the ministries be accorded more financial powers along with setting up and strengthening of the implementation cells in the relevant ministries. We also notice a tendency to rush to complete projects at the very fag end of the financial year. For example, in the last fiscal the government implemented 32 per cent of the ADP in the very last month. The rush to finish inevitably results in unnecessary wastage of resources and poor quality of work. This must be curbed.
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