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to review the progress in implementing the national budget for
2009-10 financial year. The first meeting will be with the energy
division on October 4 as the government has prioritised the power
and energy sector projects to meet the growing needs for electricity
and gas. The meetings will be continued till October 13 when the
finance ministry will discuss and review the progress of the budget
implementation with all ministries and divisions. This is the first
time that the ministry has taken such initiatives to oversee the
implementation process in such a way. The ministry will focus on
development programmes at the meetings, as the experience in
implementing such programmes was not satisfactory, an official said.
In the past a big portion of the allocated fund for development
projects remained unused mainly because of the slow implementation
process. The current budget has allocated a big amount of Tk 30 ,500
crore for the development programmes. Following the budget
announcement in June, economists suggested the government to take
special steps to ensure timely implementation of its development
projects under the Annual Development Programme (ADP). They also
cautioned that the success of the fiscal targets could not be achieved
without implementing the ADP. Finance Minister AMA Muhith also
admitted that the major challenge would be the implementation of the
budget. The minister in his budget speech, however, said that the
government will initiate special measures to ensure timely
implementation of the budget, especially the ADP. The monitoring
meetings are the major part of the initiatives. The finance ministry
has prepared a priority list of over 200 programmes and advised the
ministries concerned to submit quarterly reports on the progress of
the programmes. The ministry will also have a mid-term meeting in
December when it will review the progress and suggest further
measures to accelerate the process.
