Fifteen ministries and departments, who receive 77 percent of the total ADP allocation, could spend only 23 percent of the funds in July-November period. The implementation rate was 28 percent in the same period of last fiscal year.

"Monsoon and procurement for various projects have delayed the implementation of the ADP, but we have found that the implementation rate has started to improve by December," Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman said yesterday.

By the end of December, the rate would be 33 percent, which is "not bad," the minister said after reviewing the ADP implementation of the 15 ministries at a meeting at the National Economic Council auditorium.

Ministry officials assured Saifur that the implementation rate is sure to accelerate from January given the progress seen in December. There was a 10-percentage point jump in the implementation rate in only December.

These fifteen ministries and departments were allocated Tk 18,736 crore of the total ADP fund of Tk 24,500 crore for FY 2005-06. They have spent only Tk 4,369 crore in local resources and project aid in the five-month period.

The local component within the already spent fund is 23 percent or Tk 2, 853 crore, down by 7 percentage points from the corresponding period of last fiscal year.

The expenditure from project aid component of the ADP has also suffered a 2-percentage point drop with the spending of Tk 1,515 crore during the period.

In the meeting, the ministries were asked to explain how the ADP implementation was higher in the last fiscal year despite massive floods, sources say. The ministry officials showed usual excuses of legal complications, procurement difficulties, monsoon and donor conditions for the slow implementation of ADP.

A Planning Ministry report, however, identified eight main reasons for the sluggish implementation rate of the project aid component of the ADP fund. These include delayed initiation of projects, complications in selecting NGOs, delay in decision making by the purchase committee, and delay in submitting work orders.

According to the report, the ministries who experienced the slowest spending rate of their total ADP allocation are Power Division (down by 33 percentage points), Home Ministry (down by 29 percentage points), Communications Ministry (down by 6 percentage points), Energy and Minerals Resources Division (down by 24 percentage points), and Women and Children Affairs Ministry (down by 6 percentage points).

The most sluggish ministries using project aid are Power Division (down by 31 percentage points), Energy and Mineral Resources Division (down by 16 percentage points), Agriculture Ministry (down by 4 percentage points), Water Resources Ministry (down by 16 percentage points), Women and Children Affairs Ministry (down by 10 percentage points) and Home Ministry (down by 25 percentage points).