Even after 11 months of the current financial year, several ministries, divisions and departments have not been able to spend more than half of the allocation they received for the entire fiscal.
Foreign assistance of Tk 62,000 crore was allocated for the revised annual development program of which, Tk 34,241 crore was spent till May.
The spending ratio is still below 20 percent in six ministries and departments. This figure has come up in the progress report of the implementation monitoring and evaluation division.
Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam said “Due to COVID-19, it was not possible to work at the decided time of various projects.
The IMED report said the revised ADP caused by coronavirus pandemic had the lowest foreign exchange spending in the last four years.
As of July-May of 2019-20 FY, ministries and divisions have spent 55.28 percent of the foreign aid as compared to the allocation. During the same period in 2018-19 FY, 70.56 percent was spent.
Kazi Shafiqul Azam, a former senior secretary at the economic relations division that it was not possible to say in general what kind of damage would be done to foreign aid projects due to such a low expenditure. He said there will be some sort of impact on infrastructure projects amid the pandemic.
Former secretary also said “The most important challenge is that the situation is still uncertain. It is not possible to say when it will come under control."
The revised ADP in favour of the Ministry of Land has a foreign aid allocation of Tk 73.9 crore. But it was not possible to spend a single penny from the fund.
There is an allocation of Tk 45 crore in favour of the security services division while Tk 2.11 crore has been spent.
The rate is 6.06 per cent for Internal Resources Division and 7.82 percent for the Ministry of Housing and Public Works.
Other ministries and divisions that have lagged behind in spending foreign aid in the last 11 months include Ministry of Shipping, Ministry of Railways, Department of Financial Institutions, Ministry of Food, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.
