Government vigilant to check time and cost overrun on development projects: PM
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman said the government has taken several initiatives to prevent the trend of expansion of development projects’ tenure and cost by repeated correction.
The government also has given importance on identifying the weaknesses of the project plans and their implementation procedures, the PM said.
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman said these on Wednesday (9 September), while replying to a written question from Cumilla-10 constituency MP Md Mobasher Alam Bhuiyan raised during the Question Hour of the third session of the 13th Jatiya Sangsad.
While responding to the question in the parliament, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman said that no single reason was responsible for the projects not completed within the scheduled time and budget.
He said that formulation, inaction in project feasibility, inaccurate estimation of cost, acquisition of land, procurement bottleneck, and lack of monitoring were among the factors affecting the project completion.
He said steps have been taken to ensure that project studies are made more accurately to complete the project within the approved budget. Besides, there has been an emphasis on taking action to complete the preparation work for the implementation of the project as soon as possible after its approval.
The Prime Minister said that steps are being taken to revise the guidelines for formulation, processing, approval, and revision of projects. He said that dashboards have been introduced in various ministries and departments for monitoring and reviewing the implementation of projects and programs.
He said field reviews and monitoring had been conducted to examine the actual position of the project implementation. Besides, steps have been taken to enhance coordination among the implementing authorities to facilitate the acquisition of land and relocation of service lines.
The Prime Minister said that for the project implementation not completed within the scheduled time, the reason for the delay, irregularities, if any, and the justification for the extra budget incurred had been examined. He said action would be taken against those found responsible according to the rules.
He said the need and impact of the project whose work completion rate was below 30 percent would be reviewed, and the implementing ministry and department had been directed to take necessary action to amend, revise or abandon the project based on the review. He said steps had been taken to implement the projects and programs by clusters instead of taking up individual projects.
The Prime Minister said that steps had been taken to ensure the use of e-GP to ensure transparency and competition in government procurement. He said that while considering the appointment of project directors, emphasis would be placed on their competence, qualification, and experience. He said steps would be taken to revise the policies regarding the tenure of the project director concerned to ensure the continuity of service where necessary.
The Prime Minister said that the government would take steps to promote and encourage the implementation of projects and programs under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. He said that steps had been taken to revise the Public Procurement Rules 2025 to make the government procurement system more competitive and transparent.