‘Poor planning, inflated costs driving massive wastage’
Staff Reporter :
Planning Adviser Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud on Sunday said weak project planning, inflated cost estimates and repeated delays are responsible for large-scale wastage of public funds.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), he said serious problems persist from the very outset of development project implementation, with almost all proposals being returned for scrutiny and re-examination.
According to the adviser, the need to re-verify nearly every submitted project highlights fundamental shortcomings in the country’s capacity to prepare sound and
realistic project proposals.
He said the review process has consistently revealed significant opportunities for cost reduction, with savings amounting to as much as Tk3,000 crore in some cases.
“This made me understand why most projects initially include excessive costs, which eventually turn into wastage.
Once a project is approved, the full allocation is usually spent,” he said, adding that many projects could have been implemented on a smaller scale without compromising outcomes.
He described this tendency as one of the biggest sources of government waste.
Dr Wahiduddin also drew attention to what he termed the “tyranny of too many projects,” referring to the long-standing practice of undertaking an excessive number of development initiatives simultaneously.
“When too many projects are ongoing at the same time, it becomes impossible to ensure proper financing and timely implementation. There is a clear capacity limitation,” he said.
He explained that project directors are often assigned multiple small projects at once, leaving them overstretched and undermining effective monitoring as well as the overall quality of implementation.
The planning adviser said one of his key goals was to reduce the number of ongoing projects, but acknowledged that the government has so far failed to achieve this.
“Although fewer new projects were approved compared to previous years, many projects scheduled for completion by July last year, December last year or June this year were not finished,” he said.
He added that several projects nearing completion sought time extensions, which the government had to approve as the work was already at a final stage.
As a result, the total number of ongoing projects has not declined and has instead increased slightly.
“This happened not because we approved too many new projects, but because projects that should have been completed were not finished on time,” he said.
Dr Wahiduddin noted that the same implementation challenges cited by ministries to justify delays were repeatedly being used as explanations for missed deadlines.
To tackle the problem, he said the government has decided to issue strict instructions to all ministries, making project completion deadlines mandatory.
“Projects for which ministries have committed to completion by June or December this year must be finished within those timelines. Otherwise, funding for those projects will be stopped,” he warned.
He added that a formal directive would be sent to all ministries to ensure accountability and improve discipline in development project implementation.