With the changed political scenario, the government is apprehending the donor agencies might put technical assistance under strict scrutiny, resulting in discontinuation in fund disbursement in the pretext of governance issues.
All the directors of projects with foreign technical assistance have been asked to be over cautious in monitoring, reviewing and identifying the implementation problems, officials said.
They said the government is now over cautious about ensuring the governance issues of the projects as it apprehends a possibility of sudden halt in fund disbursement due to the one-sided national election held on January 5.
‘’There have always been such a possibility of facing setback in getting the foreign assistance as per commitments as the development partners will be very watchful on the issue of good governance in project implementation, following the election,” said a senior official.
Former secretary of Economic Relations Division Abul Kalam Azad, now attached with Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), at a review meeting held recently warned five project directors of the consequences in case of any governance failure.
He pointed out “really poor” performance of two projects – World Bank-assisted “Central Coordination Unit of Private Sector Development Support Project (CCU-PSDSP)” and Japan-funded “Development of Four Economic Zones Project.”
Meanwhile, the World Bank expressed its rigidness in disbursing any more fund for training and foreign tour of the CCU-PSDSP officials because of the poor performance in project implementation.
Four other development projects are Capacity Building of Economic Relations Division, Strengthening Capacity of Aid Effectiveness in Bangladesh, Enhancement of Capacity of the Management of External Aid in Bangladesh, and Japan Human Resources Development Scholarship Project.
The rate of fund disbursement of the five technical assistance projects stood at 32.51% or Tk11.53 crore till November last year. Total cost of the five projects is Tk33.18 crore.
As per meeting records, only 13.11% or Tk19.67 lakh was released till November from the last year’s allocation worth Tk150 lakh for the implementation of the World Bank’s CCU-PSDSP.
The secretary reportedly advised the project directors to further strengthening negotiation with the World Bank officials for disbursement of funds for training and foreign tour purposes.
On the other hand, the finance ministry expressed inability to disburse TK46 crore for purchasing 232 acres of land for Mongla Port Authority under the Development of Four Economic Zones Projects with the fund from Japan.
However, Japan Development Institute (JDI) has already completed the feasibility study on three potential sites of economic zones – Sherpur, and Anwara and Mirershori in Chittagong. JDI wants immediate development of the Sherpur Economic Zone area.
Under the Japan Human Resources Development Scholarship Project, a total of 39.52% fund was disbursed till November against the allocated amount of Tk22.65 crore.
The fund disbursement rate stood 45% of Capacity Building of Economic Relations Division Project while Strengthening Capacity of Aid Effectiveness in Bangladesh stood 38.65% and no disbursement in the project titled ‘’Enhancement of Capacity of the Management of External Aid in Bangladesh’’ till November last year.
The overall foreign aid disbursement went up by only 2% year-on-year in the first five months of the current fiscal year due to the slow project implementation as a consequence of political turmoil ahead of the national election, officials said.
Between July and November period of last year, some $987m of foreign aid was disbursed, which is 29% of the target for the fiscal 2013-14, according to Economic Relations Division (ERD). The foreign aid target set for the current fiscal year is $3.37bn.