Editorial
Unutilised aid money
Capacity building imperative
Slow pace of project implementation and return of the unutilised fund to its source is a very familiar feature of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) every year. The scenario is not different even in the case of foreign aid. And as a result, billions of dollar worth of scarce as well as precious foreign aid has created a pipeline bulge. This is not just a sad commentary on the project implementation agency's capacity to absorb foreign aid, it does also give a rather negative image of the government.
A report in this paper has brought to the fore afresh how we have failed to put a huge sum of aid money amounting 12 billion US dollars to good use. Though the economy receives some $2 to $3 billion annually in foreign aid, this fiscal it has swelled to $6.5 billion. The Economic Relations Division (ERD) has attributed the increased aid fund to the donors' commitments for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge.
But there are still strong grounds for concern about meeting the project implementation target there. Even the finance ministry has cast doubts seeing that of the total aid commitment, only $1.29b has been disbursed over the first nine months of the current FY. It is worthwhile to note that this is less than last year's disbursement figure. The delay has been due to the fresh conditions imposed by the World Bank relating to pre-qualification of bidders for Padma Bridge project.
The donors' conditionalities apart , it cannot be gainsaid that deeply ingrained bureaucratic sloth, lack of decision-making authority of the of projects-in-charge, tardiness rooted in too many tables that a file has to shuttle between, alleged corruption and a plethora of lapses and foibles dog the entire project administration regime.
The hurdles mentioned bear down heavily on the capacity of the implementation agencies. Keeping the absorption capacity of the ministries in view, we should be more cautious and selective about accepting foreign aid. At the same time, the government must exercise its political will to rid the administration of sloth and waffling.
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