Delay in project implementation only due to money swindling

THE horrible scenario of organized corruption in projects, from idea to implementation – lapse of accountability, transparency and apathy in monitoring prevail only due to dishonesty. Improper feasibility study, unrealistic development project proposals (DPP) and targets, bureaucratic tangles and corruption by the concerned people are making all major development projects costly and time consuming. A Wednesday report of this daily said unscrupulous local and foreign contractors in league with equally immoral officials, driven by greed for public money meddle in the process of preparing a project, indulging in an orgy of looting.
Experts alleged that some dishonest officials pass information about selected sites to the profiteers’ syndicate, who immediately jump to buy or lease land in the site area and set up temporary structures to squeeze higher compensation during the land acquisition. They encourage landowners to go to the courts to seek a stay order on these projects to amass more money and pass time. The bureaucratic tangles consume at least one year—which increases the time taken to implement the project as tenders are again invited or go through a re-tendering process and funds allocation and the evaluation of the quoted proposals takes another six-month to one-year. The project implementation starts with land acquisition, which takes a much longer time due to legal complexities and claims settlement.
The common malpractice of the project implementing agencies is prayer for increasing the volume of funds or reevaluation of the DPP, citing price inflation. The unethical people resort to dilly dallying tactics in the construction works so that more time extension occur and more public money can be swindled. As a result, the cost and target schedule of completion of the projects are increased and extended again and again. Schedule extension for completion of Dhaka-Chittagong Four-Lane Highway, life line of the national economy, has increased the project cost to Tk 31902.9 million from the initial Tk 19545.9 million—-an increase of almost fifty percent. The project was scheduled to complete this December but the time limit has already been extended for December next year. The money-swindling spree in other projects is also going on recklessly. The upgradation of the four-lane project in Joydevpur crossing to Mymensingh Medical College initially involved Tk 9020 million in 2010 and after increasing several folds the amount now stands at Tk 18151.2 million. The Dhaka-Chittagong Double Rail Line project was thought in 2006 to cost Tk 20367.5 million and was originally scheduled to complete by this December. Citing price inflation and other complexities, the contractors are now demanding 30 percent more money. In 2003, ECNEC approved the establishment of a Leather Industrial City at Savar with a target to complete the project in 2010 at Tk 5453.6 million. Now the cost increased to Tk 10787.1 million and the project is still incomplete.
The swindling of money in the implementation of several development projects has made these projects a haven of corruption to the unscrupulous people, mostly politically and bureaucratically affiliated high-ups who vaporize all our efforts to be a developed nation. Swindling public money by deferring completion time does not harm the bureaucracy but rather is axe in our nation’s feet.