DHAKA, Sept 18, 2024 (BSS) - Adviser to the interim government on the
Ministries of Planning and Education Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud today said that the
main goals of the current government are to stopping wastage and misuse of
funds and curbing corruption in development schemes while it is also pursuing
highly to contain the inflation rate.

"It's very much urgent to us on how to ensure quality of development works
rather than increasing the development budget size. Our main goals are to
stop wastage and misuse of funds and also to curbing corruption. In doing so,
if the expenditure remains low and the budget size is trimmed, then to me
it's not a disadvantage," he said.

The Planning Adviser was replying to a volley of questions at the NEC
conference room in the city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area while briefing
reporters about the first ECNEC meeting of the interim government held today
at the Chief Adviser's Office in Tejgaon.

Noting that the macroeconomic situation of the country is passing through a
tough time, he hoped that the exchange rate would come to a stable condition
while the internal resources mobilization would also get a momentum.

"For containing inflation, it's necessary to conduct necessary exercise on
where to contain the budget deficit. But, it's very ...very much necessary
for us to contain the inflation," he added.

Asked to what extent the current ADP size would be trimmed, the Adviser said
it's not possible right at this moment to project it as the government is
still unclear about the possible sources of funding to meet the budgetary
expenditure.

In this connection, he mentioned that they did not know even few days back
that the World Bank would come up with fresh $1 billion funding if the almost
died or 'freezer' projects are not processed further. The World Bank has
proposed to provide the amount as budget support, he added.

Dr Mahmud said that all the development partners including the USAID are
showing their keen interest to fund the government's fresh development
projects even they are saying that they have no reservation in continuing
funding against the ongoing projects.

Regarding undertaking new development projects, he said the government would
move cautiously and steadily through analyzing the possible sources of
funding and after around five months, it would be possible to figure out the
revised ADP size.

The Planning Adviser informed that they have almost amended the project
formulation and implementation process as the main weaknesses lie in project
implementation process as most of the project directors over the years were
politically motivated while they were also influential people.

Even the contractors tried to accomplish their task as per their wishes
resulting in time overrun and cost overrun of projects leading to the misuse
and wastage of fund.

"The project scrutiny and formulation process will almost remain the same,
but we'll try our best to minimize the bureaucratic tangles and thus speedily
process those for approval by ECNEC. Side by side we'll attach some
conditions before the executing agencies for implementing the projects
successfully since implementation is the main thing," he added.

The Adviser alleged that earlier in the past there were unnecessary
interventions over the development projects while there was no accountability
by the implementing agencies after the projects were approved at the ECNEC.

Mentioning that the government wants to expedite the process for implementing
the foreign-aided projects, the Planning Adviser said a huge amount of
foreign aid was still in the pipeline since those have less scope for
irregularities, attach conditions and usually have strict monitoring.

He said that many foreign aided projects are still in the 'freezer' of the
Planning Commission for many years and under the current circumstances, the
World Bank has recently offered the government for providing $1 billion as
budget support by December if such projects are released.

He said the Washington-based lending agency stands ready to provide more
support in development projects.

Dr Wahiduddin said they are now finding it difficult to process fresh
projects for giving approval since many of the draft projects of the previous
government were politically motivated while the Planning Commission officials
are scrutinizing those.

He said the day's ECNEC meeting took a decision to give approval to the
foreign aided projects while the concerned ministries and divisions could
further scrutinize those after approval in order to make those time befitting
and epoch making.

"Our aim is to utilize as much as foreign aid in the pipeline and thus
undertake more development projects with support from the development
partners," he said adding that some short-term and long-term projects would
also be undertaken side by side the government would remain cautious that the
pipeline remains standard.

Answering to a question, the Planning Adviser asserted that the interim
government would not resort to any kind of misuse of fund which the country's
people could be rest assured.

He informed that the Ministry of Planning would issue a circular very soon on
the project scrutiny, formulation and implementation aspects.

Dr Wahiduddin alleged that in the past regime, many big and mega projects
were undertaken where the costs of the components were three to four times
higher than international standards. "Our government will remain vigil to
avert reoccurrence of such things,"

Replying to another question, he said although all politically motivated
projects were not bad projects, but some projects were taken in the past out
of ill political motive.

Blasting the previous government for undertaking the Bus Rapid Transit
project in Gazipur, he said quoting experts that the project was undertaken
without having proper planning while there might be a need in the future to
demolish that project.

He informed that the concerned agencies would remain more cautious in case of
land acquisition for projects as such practice is associated with wastage of
fund, irregularities and cutting of trees.

The Adviser said the previous government had long been advocating for
availing the duty free and quota free access of products, but the fact is
that following LDC graduation, there would be more need for striking
bilateral agreements. "For this, there is a need for boosting the skills and
competitive edge of the economy. In doing so, we need more fresh projects in
education and technology."