A five-year Tk 298.50 crore project aimed at improving the irrigation system in five districts of the country undertaken in June 2005 by the Bangladesh Water Development Board was scrapped in June 2010 as only 6 per cent of its budget had been spent in the project period and none of the project activities was completed.
The unused project fund was diverted to other projects under the Annual Development Programme in fiscal year 2010-2011.
The project was intended to improve the flood control system, increase water supply, and improve the irrigation system in 21 upazilas of south Comilla, Noakhali, Chandpur, Lakshmipur, and Feni districts. The project area is low-lying and flood-prone, where farming is impeded for much of the year by flooding of the Dakatia and by lack of irrigation water in the dry season.
The report of an evaluation committee, submitted in early July 2011 to the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division of the planning ministry, also identified irregularities and corruption in spending Tk 18 crore of the project fund, with activities costing more than double what they should have done.
The evaluation committee, which visited Comilla, Noakhali, and Lakshmipur districts, also recommended further investigations to ensure transparency of the project implementation.
'Most components of the project were not properly implemented and the funds misused,' the report said.
'The dredging of a 4.69 kilometre canal' could have been done using less than half of the total money expended for it, the report continued.
The committee found that much of the Tk 9 crore spent in Comilla was 'wasted', project activities had only been done partially in Noakhali, which in fact made things worse, and in Lakshmipur the activities were carried out with derelict machinery.
It also criticised the WDB for poor management of the project, which had employed as many as 14 project directors in the 5-year period.
The report mentioned that at the end of the project period, a proposal to complete the project activities was rejected by the Planning Commission as the WDB demanded additional funds that were 76 per cent more than the original project budget.
A senior IMED official said it was not unusual to find irregularities and mismanagement in project implementation. The failure of the projects often meant, he said, that it was not possible for the implementing agencies to carry on with the work.
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies research director Zaid Bakht said every year some of the government's development projects remained unfinished due to irregularities and mismanagement.
He said the projects often ended up wasting large sums of money but producing no outcome.
The BIDS economist said, 'Every year the government approves projects for a specific period and allocates funds for them but the project implementation trend is not satisfactory at all.'
Out of the total 1,039 projects under the current ADP, only 77 are new ones, with the rest being 'ongoing' projects which were not completed in time, Zaid Bakht pointed out, adding, 'It is a vicious circle of ADP project implementation.'
He also said that some of the ADP projects were taken from political consideration or to satisfy different stakeholders, with no clear selection criteria and project objectives.
Source : New Age
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