The government will appoint project directors to development projects through interviews in an effort to improve annual development expenditure across the country.
At present, there is no hard and fast rule about appointing project directors.
Being frustrated with dismal Annual Development Programme (ADP) implementation, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal disclosed the new strategy at a meeting with secretaries of different ministries and divisions at the NEC conference room yesterday.
“From now on, the ministries and divisions will appoint project directors for their respective projects through interviews,” the minister told the meeting.
He said: “For an eligible project director, job experience, relevant academic background and so on will be required. Moreover, the government will scrutinise eligibility of the existing project directors.”
“A guideline to this end would also be formulated soon,” he said, adding that it would be made mandatory for the project directors to stay at their respective project sites.
To lessen the burden of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division, the minister said the respective ministries and divisions should set a dedicated official for monitoring and evaluating their projects.
The meeting discussed the non-operational or stuck-up projects under the ADP as the projects have brought burden on the state exchequer.
In this connection, Kamal said ministries and divisions concerned would be served letter on October 1 every year to send the list of non-performing projects to the Planning Commission.
On land acquisition difficulties, he suggested not to initiate any project before finalising land.
Simplifying the process of preparing the Development Project Pro forma was also discussed in the meeting.
Meanwhile, in the first month (July) of current fiscal year, the development expenditure stood only at 1% or Tk714 crore of the total allocation for the entire fiscal year under the ADP, according to the data of the IMED.
The figure is lowest since the fiscal year 2010-2011. The government targeted to spend Tk1,00,997 crore for fiscal year 2015-2016 under ADP.
