World Bank (WB) Country Director Ellen Goldstein Wednesday said the bank would not take any decision on the Padma Bridge project before getting the investigation reports on it.

She said the WB is continuing dialogue on the Padma bridge project with Bangladesh.

"We are waiting for the preliminary outcome of some ongoing investigations into Padma Bridge project and at the same time the Bank is maintaining dialogue with the goverment," Ellen Goldstein told reporters after a meeting of the local consultative group (LCG) at the Economic Relations Division office in Dhaka.

Goldstein gave the assurance that the commitment made by the development partners worth about US$ 13 billion was available for use by Bangladesh though a global economic recession was going on.

"The fund is yours and you will get the committed fund. What you will have to do is spend it. From our part we will see whether it is spent on the purpose it is intended for," she said.

"Though the country maintained a steady growth and achieved many of the indicators in millennium development goal (MDG), Bangladesh aid disbursement could have been speedier if several structural reforms including financial management and public procurement were implemented," she added.

The country director said donors want to see that the money spent on projects is monitored in more transparent and accountable ways.

Goldstein identified the cumbersome project approval process, discontinuity of project directors and non-implementation of financial reforms as the major barriers to speeding up aid disbursement.

Senior Secretary of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) Iqbal Mahmood speaking on the occasion admitted that slow pace of implementation and discontinuity of project directors also worried the government. He said the meeting decided to hold the meeting of the LCG regularly to improve the situation.

The LCG meeting examined the trends in implementation of the Annual Development Programme (ADP).

The meeting agreed to hold quarterly meetings to closely monitor the implementation of the agreed measures.

Presently, the WB is implementing about 30 development programmes involving a sum of $4.6 billion in commitment.

The government signed agreements with WB for $1.2 billion loan, ADB (Asian Development Bank) for $615 million, JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) for $400 million and IDB (Islamic Development Bank) for $140 million to construct the 6.15 kilometre-long Padma bridge.

But the project became stalled in October last year following WB's allegation of corruption in the bidding process.

Iqbal Mahmood said the Padma bridge project, the biggest ever infrastructure project in the country, is on and the process would continue.

"We also discussed speedy appointment of consultants by the development partners," he said. "Delay in project approval is an obstacle and we will request the Planning Commission to look into the issue."

The ERD secretary claimed that aid disbursement and commitment this fiscal were better than that of previous years and it would continue to grow in future.

"Last year we received $1.7 billion foreign aid and this year until January we received $1.01 billion and we expect to get $2.0 billion in disbursed loan by the year-end," Mahmood said.

The World Bank country chief said until March the Bank disbursed $300 million and the amount is expected to cross $ 0.5 billion by the end of this fiscal.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 29th March 2012