The implementation of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) in the first six months of fiscal year 2024-25 was down 19 percent year-on-year, due mainly to political unrest and delay caused by thorough scrutiny of previously approved projects.

Development spending in the July-December period amounted to Tk 50,002 crore, according to the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the planning ministry.

This means that in the first half of the current fiscal year, the interim government spent around 18 percent of the total development outlay for FY25.

In the same period of the last fiscal year, ADP implementation stood at Tk 61,739 crore, representing over 22 percent of the total allocation, the data showed.

Planning Adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud said that the pace of the ADP implementation slowed this year because the government needed to scrutinise and amend many projects in the first few months, which was time-consuming.

"Now, we have accelerated the scrutiny," he told journalists following a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) last week.

Mahmud, also a noted economist, expressed hope that the ADP implementation would pick up in the coming months as several new projects, which are fully aligned with the current administration's priorities, would require less verification.

With the absence of members of parliament and the fragile state of local governments, administrators are managing local governance, and their demand for new projects has been minimal.

"I have urged local officials to submit project proposals, and the Planning Commission is also analysing the needs of the people while approving new projects," Mahmud added.

Professor Selim Raihan, executive director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (Sanem), identified political unrest as a major reason for the slow pace of the ADP implementation, which has also contributed to a reduction in GDP growth rates.

"When the interim government took power after the removal of the previous administration in August 2024, the changeover disrupted the ADP implementation process," he said.

"Furthermore, the administration has yet to achieve full stability. As a result, the ADP implementation may remain slow for the remaining six months," he said.

During the tenure of previous political governments, he said the ADP implementation was marred by significant corruption. "With those governments out of power, corruption has decreased, as evidenced by the lower implementation rate."

In the first six months, the use of government finances in ADP spending stood at 16 percent, down from 20 percent in the same period of the previous year.

During the same time, the use of foreign funds in ADP implementation was around 20 percent, a decline from 26 percent in the first half of FY24.

Among the public offices with the highest allocations, Health Services Division utilised the lowest proportion of its funds, just 4.9 percent, during the six-month period.

Conversely, Power Division utilised the largest share, spending 31 percent of its allocated fund, followed by the Ministry of Science and Technology 29 percent, Local Government Division around 25 percent, and the Ministry of Agriculture 21 percent.