Ensure accountability to stop projects execution delays

In Bangladesh, delays have become the norm regarding implementing development projects. Cost overruns are also par for the course in most cases. According to a report published in this newspaper on Wednesday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her displeasure over the delay in implementing development projects and the repeated revisions of such projects sent to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council for approval. This is not the first time the prime minister expressed her annoyance over the issue. She has stated her dissatisfaction with the delay in implementing development projects time and again. The prime minister has repeatedly asked different departments concerned to strengthen coordination to pick up the pace regarding the execution of development projects.

The government's guidelines say that a feasibility study project can be revised only once, and if that raises costs by more than 15 percent, permission from the planning minister is required. Unfortunately, we have often witnessed a completely lackadaisical attitude from the relevant department regarding this most crucial issue.

During the ECNEC meeting on Tuesday, the prime minister admonished the authorities concerned over the issue. According to Member of the Planning Commission's Physical Infrastructure Division under Mamun Al Rashid "She expressed annoyance when the Improvement of Netrokona-Nishiura-Ishwarganj Highway Project (First Revision) was placed before her." The Planning Minister MA Mannan said after the meeting, "Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has encouraged us to work together for completing projects in the stipulated time frame and asked all to address the problems that are delaying implementation."

There is no doubt that some projects cannot be completed in due time because of genuine reasons. However, more often than not, what we see in Bangladesh is that virtually all the development projects happen to be staggered, involving cost and time overruns. It has become a culture of sorts– both habitual and deliberate, smacking of inefficiency and devious motives. Delays in project implementation can only be accepted as an exception; they can't be allowed to become the rule. And in the event that they do, it has to be assumed that the authorities concerned are clearly the ones at fault. And the sad reality is that the general public suffers when the abnormal is accepted as the normal. The public's money goes into keeping these costly projects afloat.

According to experts, it is at the time of project preparation that extreme caution, professional know-how, economic merit, and efficient machinery for implementation would have to be integrated into the process to make it fool-proof. The nation cannot afford the bleeding of the exchequer through unacceptable gaps between project targets and their actual implementation.

Feasibility tests and estimation of project costs cannot vary by such a wide margin that only half or one-third of the work gets completed during the target period– as seen in the implementation of many development projects. Those responsible for the execution of development projects are expected to have the required expertise to know the time limit and amount of expenditure involved in an undertaking. In this age of digitisation, such things should be worked out with clinical efficiency.

Delays in project implementation must come to an end. Those responsible for project delays must be held to account. The development projects are publicly funded. Despite the repeated failures to complete projects on time and within the initial cost estimate, no one in the administration—or those in charge of the projects—are ever held accountable for such failures. Such failures are often an outcome of inefficiency or corruption—or both. Despite the prime minister's directive in December 2020 to take action against those responsible for the delays in project execution, we are yet to see any meaningful action so far, which is frustrating, to say the least. The government departments charged with clearing projects must be held accountable for delays at their end. Without this, no amount of monitoring would help.