8 crore allocated for 300 development projects for the poor, 53 crore spent on 473 local and foreign consultants!

❐ News report

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The Department of Social Services has proposed a development project to help helpless people who have lost their homes due to climate change. Under the proposed project, a grant of about 8 crore taka will be given to change the fate of 300 helpless people. However, the cost of consultants and administrative luxuries for distributing this grant money has been estimated at more than 53 crore taka. 473 local and foreign consultants are also being employed in this!

Those concerned say that in this way, in the name of helping the homeless and poor, most of the money from the proposed project has been cleverly funneled into the pockets of bureaucrats and consultants.

According to the project proposal, the cost of implementing the proposed project titled ‘Strengthening Urban Integration Capacities of Internally Displaced Persons and Providing Support to Host Communities (INTEGRATE)’ is estimated at 612.964 crore taka.

The project, funded by the German International Cooperation Agency (GIZ), has a duration of 1 year and 9 months. A meeting of the Planning Commission’s Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) is scheduled to be held on Sunday on the project proposed by the Department of Social Services.

The main goal of the project is to make people displaced by climate change economically self-reliant in cities like Khulna, Satkhira, Rajshahi and Sirajganj. It is said that through this, 300 people will be supported in small businesses and 1500 people will be improved in their livelihoods.

But the proposed budget figure suggests that the bulk of the allocation will be spent on meeting the administrative costs of the project stakeholders rather than achieving this goal.

Only 13.23 percent goes to the poor, the rest goes to others

According to the proposal, the indirect costs of this project, with a total budget of 612.964 crore taka, are several times higher than the costs incurred to achieve the main goal.

An analysis of the project’s budget shows that out of this huge amount allocated in the name of improving the lot of the poor, only 81 million 90 thousand taka will reach the hands of the real needy people as grants, which is only 13.23 percent of the total budget.

And against the distribution of this grant, the remaining 531.874 crore taka will be spent on the management expenses of the officials, office rent, and luxuries.

Appeasing bureaucrats and consultants is more important than providing assistance.

According to the project documents, the target is to create small business opportunities for only 300 poor people (270 women and 30 disabled) in three districts; but 473 local and foreign consultants are being appointed to ‘advise’ these 300 people on the distribution of grants. The cost for them is estimated at 296.263 crore taka.

In other words, while only 8 crore taka will be provided as direct grants to the homeless, 296.2 lakh 63 thousand taka will be spent on domestic and foreign consultants; which is 48.33 percent of the original cost.

Demand to travel abroad despite ban

Despite strict austerity guidelines and a ban on foreign travel from the government, no effort has been spared to satisfy the ‘desire’ of officials to travel abroad in this project.

A total of 3.51 crore taka has been proposed for foreign travel and training of officials. In addition, 1.27 crore taka has been allocated for domestic travel.

This project, funded by GIZ to create employment for the poor, has been allocated a management charge of 100.765 million taka. In addition, 31.925 million taka has been allocated for office building rent. Even the purchase of IT equipment and telecommunication equipment has been priced high, according to Planning Commission sources.

The remaining money will be spent on training workshops, administrative and utility bills, purchase of various office equipment, transportation and fuel, and other services and supplies.

Sources said that there is also ambiguity in the project proposal. There is no clear outline of how the displaced and disabled people who will be assisted under the project will be selected.

Apart from this, there have been allegations that the procurement plan of the project did not follow the policies of ‘PPA-2006’ and ‘PPR-2008’ properly. Even as a large part of the project’s term has already passed, there have been concerns about its implementation.

According to Planning Commission sources, the project proposed by the Department of Social Services is going to face various questions in the PEC meeting regarding the cost structure. Explanations will be sought for the huge expenditure on various sectors including consultants, foreign travel and office rent under the project.

In addition, an explanation will be sought for not properly following the Public Procurement Act (PPA) and Public Procurement Regulations (PPR).

A concerned official of the commission said, “The main objective of the project is to provide financial facilities to these beneficiaries for their small businesses and improve their standard of living. However, the majority of the budget has been proposed to be spent on other sectors. A detailed analysis of this project will be conducted in the PEC meeting.”

The Planning Commission has already scrutinized these high consultancy costs and unnecessary administrative expenses. The sectors where the high costs have been identified will be asked to reduce them.

Analysts say that if the majority of the budget of this project, which was taken under the pretext of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is spent on consultancy and bureaucratic expenses, the fate of the marginalized people will not change. If this cost structure of the project is not revised, it will only be considered a waste of government money.

However, the Department of Social Services is reluctant to take responsibility for the unusual expenditure and irregularities in the project proposal. They claim that despite the low amount of donations to the poor and the huge expenditure on consultants and officials, they are working to approve the project proposal under the pretext of the donor agency’s conditions.

When asked about this, Director (Planning and Development Branch) of the Social Services Department, Md. Sajjadul Islam said, ‘The main agreement for this project was made through the Economic Relations Department (ERD). This is basically a technical assistance project, which has to be prepared according to the preferences or conditions of the donor agency.’

Regarding the huge expenditure on consultancy and administrative sectors compared to grants, he said that since it is grant money, in many cases there is no scope to go beyond the conditions given by the donor agency. They did not prepare the proposal for this project themselves, but the donor agency (GIZ) prepared it and sent it to them.

Regarding the proposal to travel abroad despite the government ban, Sajjadul Islam said, “This has only been given in the proposal. If the government gives permission, then the trip will take place, otherwise the money from this sector will remain unspent.” He also claimed that the issue of office rent has been kept for the work needs of the project-related officials.

News source: Daily Kalbela