Dhaka: Planning Adviser Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud highlighted that poor planning, inflated cost estimates, and repeated delays are causing large-scale wastage of public resources. He made these remarks after a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).
According to United News of Bangladesh, Dr Wahiduddin stated that from the onset, development projects have faced significant implementation challenges. Almost all projects required re-verification, exposing fundamental flaws in the country’s project preparation capacity. The adviser noted that this verification process often revealed significant scope for cost savings, with potential savings reaching up to Tk 3,000 crore in some projects.
Dr Wahiduddin expressed concern over why projects initially included excessive costs which later resulted in wastage. He explained that once a project is approved, the allocated cost is usually spent in full. However, upon reviewing these projects, it became evident that many could have been scaled down, identifying this as a major source of government waste.
The adviser also addressed the problem of managing too many projects at once, describing it as the ‘tyranny of too many projects’. He explained that when numerous projects are ongoing simultaneously, it becomes impossible to ensure proper financing and implementation at the desired pace, citing a clear capacity constraint.
Dr Wahiduddin emphasized that excessive numbers of projects leave project directors overstretched, as many are placed in charge of several small projects simultaneously, which affects monitoring and overall quality of implementation. He acknowledged that one of his key objectives was to reduce the number of ongoing projects but admitted that the government had not been successful in achieving this.
Despite approving fewer new projects compared to previous years, many projects that were supposed to be completed by July last year, December last year, or June this year were not finished. Consequently, several projects nearing completion applied for time extensions, which the government had to approve since work was already in the final stages.
As a result, the total number of ongoing projects has not declined but has slightly increased, despite efforts to limit the approval of new ones. This situation arose not because of taking too many new projects but because the projects that should have been completed remained unfinished.
Dr Wahiduddin mentioned that the same implementation-related problems cited by ministries to justify delays were also being used to explain why projects could not be completed on time. To address this issue, he stated that 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 meet those deadlines. Otherwise, funding for those projects will be stopped. A formal directive conveying this decision will be sent to all ministries to enforce accountability and improve discipline in project implementation.