The implementation deficit is mainly put down to political unrest during the first four months of the current fiscal 2006-07 when the BNP-Jamaat led coalition had been in power. 2006 being a pre-election year, the coalition government seemed keen on particular projects with lump allocations, so that there was an opaque implementation of the ADP. The first caretaker government which ruled during the remainder two months of the first half of 2006 reportedly released money slowly causing a rather sluggish ADP implementation.

It is disappointing to note that of the 43 ministries and divisions as many as 20 cut a sorry figure implementing below 20 percent of their share in the ADP followed by 20-29 percent by 11 ministries and divisions. Rural Development and Cooperatives Division topped with 62 percent implementation as the home ministry came out second best at 47 percent. At the other end, primary and mass education ministry slumped to 34 percent from 52 percent last year.

Now what are the options for the interim government to accelerate the pace of development? Internal resource mobilisation through tax collection can be geared up in a context where there is no political pressure to encounter in going after habitual tax evaders. Secondly, insofar as foreign currency component of the projects goes, the development partners are in a better frame of mind to disburse money as they have in so many words made known.

Keeping such plus factors at the back of our mind we should immediately downsize the ADP and draw up hardcore compact list of priority projects that are capable of being implemented within the remainder of the fiscal 2006-07.

We quite agree with the finance adviser, however, that the bottlenecks in terms of implementation need to be identified by the various ministries, so that these can be eliminated through well coordinated efforts to make any real headway possible.