The Statistics and Informatics Division (SID) of the Ministry of Planning proposed a project to update the socio-economic database in all upazilas of two districts, along with two upazilas of another district, to support the implementation of the National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) of the government.
This new proposal amounting to Tk49.48 crore, has been formulated to be implemented by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) just a year after wasting Tk642.60 crore of public funds on developing a national household database aimed at identifying poor families across the country.
Planning Commission has scheduled a meeting of the Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) to evaluate the proposal and get ready the project for final approval, said sources.
According to sources, Socio-Economic Infrastructure Division Member Secretary Rehana Perven would chair the PEC meeting scheduled to be held on 24 July for the project titled “Updating Socio-Economic Database of Kurigram and Magura District to Support NSSS Implementation”.
The project aims to develop a management information system (MIS)-based database of all households in the project areas, complete with a poverty score, to identify beneficiaries for all social safety net programmes across various government agencies as a part of poverty alleviation, revealed the proposal.
The project will conduct piloting activities digitally in in Kurigram and Magura entire districts and Hajiganj and Shahrasti upazilas of Chandpur using the national household database and census database as benchmarks following the latest poverty map 2016 and other ancillary criteria.
An MIS with Proxy Mean Test (PMT) scores will be developed for the database having household information will be collected digitally and Memorandums of Understanding will be signed with other ministries and agencies to use the database while selecting beneficiaries of social safety net.
One of the major objectives of the project is to prepare a road map for the creation of a self-contained MIS-based digital database containing the PMT scores of all households in the country, considering the results obtained in the proposed database and its effectiveness in selecting beneficiaries at the grassroots level, revealed the project documents.
The project proposal revealed that the BBS would spend Tk45.45 crore about 94% of the project cost as operating expenses.
The analysis also revealed that Tk30.45 crore about 62% of the total cost included with the project as components out of the procurement plan. The majority of the goods under the project are to be procured following the quotation method neglecting the open tender method.
The PEC will be asked for justification of high operating costs, and items out of the procurement plan and will suggest reducing costs for staff salaries, payments for consultants and for some other components, said officials of the planning commission.
The Planning Commission would be asked about the justification of the project proposal and proposed implementation areas, they added.
Is the new project justified?
The Planning Commission will ask about the justification and the rationale of selecting Magura, Kurigram districts and Hajiganj and Shahrasti upazilas of Chandpur district as the project area.
A working paper made by the planning commission to be presented at the PEC meeting revealed that the poverty rate of the Kurigram district is 70.8% and 56.7% in the Magura district.
The rate is 23.3% in Hajiganj and 32.9% in Shahrasti upazilas of Chandpur.
The document also revealed that the poverty rate remained over 50% in seven districts of Bangladesh while the rate was 63.2% in Bandarban’s hill districts and 64.3% in Dinajpur district.
It also said that another project titled "Bangladesh Poverty and Livelihood Statistics" proposed by BBS is under process which would help update the poverty map. In this context the rationale of the proposed project can be discussed in the meeting, the working paper revealed.
High estimation for wages, consultants, transport and training:
A sum of Tk36.28 crore over 73% of the total cost proposed to be spent for four components including the salaries for staff out of the government officials, payments for consultants, transport and training.
The Planning Commission will ask rationale for such high costs and recommend to revise down the costs at a justified level.
The document revealed that the BBS proposed Tk16.76 crore, about 34% of the project cost for the salaries of the staff and another Tk12.65 crore have been proposed for three consultants.
This work of a consultant can be assisted from the ICT Cell of the SID and BBS and provision for consultants can be excluded, as revealed in the working paper.
It also revealed that Tk1.50 crore has been proposed for hiring two vehicles while another Tk2.68 crore proposed for travel, communication and transportation.
The justification for hiring two vehicles for a small project would be asked at the meeting.
Officials also have observations regarding the proposed allocation of Tk64.16 lakh as honorarium, Tk22.31 lakh as entertainment, Tk31.19 lakh as costs for seminars and conferences and Tk1.03 crore for other stationaries.
The officials said that BBS proposed a huge number of committees and asked for an honorarium for such committees.
The proposal revealed that the SID asked for Tk1.22 crore, only 2.46% of the entire estimated cost to operate the survey, which is one of the most important components of the project.
A 15-year journey in search of poverty data
The Awami League government following victory in the ninth national election in late 2008 announced the creation of a database for the poor.
In the budget speech for the fiscal year 2009-201, then-finance minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith said, "Taking the advantage of the technology used for the preparation of National Identity Card, we will prepare a comprehensive list of hardcore poor, deprived elderly citizens, disabled and freedom fighters to provide them with increased assistance.”
In the budget speech for the fiscal year 2010-2011 placed in the parliament on 10 June 2010, he said that the government started a survey to prepare a list of beggars to eradicate begging.
He also informed the parliament that the government had taken steps to develop a database on the beneficiaries of Social Safety Net programs.
“We want to ensure coordination among delivery of various social services and install appropriate monitoring, surveillance and evaluation mechanisms,” said Muhith in parliament.
Sources said the finance division formulated a concept paper titled “Preparation of List of Extremely Poor Population” earlier and the SID decided to initiate the Bangladesh Poverty Database (BPD) in May 2010.
The government asked for financial and technical support from the World Bank to implement the proposed project through the Economic Relations Division (ERD).
Later, the Cabinet Division decided to formulate the beneficiaries list by the statistics division in coordination with the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.
The government approved a project titled "Safety Net Systems for the Poorest (SNSP)" in 2013 with the support of the World Bank to be implemented jointly by the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) and the BBS while the National Household Database project was included as the third component of the project.
The main objective of the component was to prepare a database containing the socio-economic status indicator score of each household by collecting the information for the selection of beneficiaries by the various departments related to the implementation of the social security programme.
Estimated cost of the project scheduled to be concluded by 2017 was Tk 328.77 crore while TK16.37 crore was supposed to be spent from the government exchequer and Tk312.40 crore from the World Bank as project aid.
The BBS concluded the project in December 2022 after spending Tk642.60 crore, around double of the initial estimate.
Tk643 crore wasted?
Although the project was completed in December 2022 after collecting data from about 3.5 crore houses across the country the database developed under it remained incomplete and impractical said officials of the BBS.
They said that there was a plan to share the database from the Management Information System (MIS) with various stakeholders through an Application Programming Interface (API) but this could not be done as MIS was not ready on time.
Later NHD data was shared with various agencies of the government including the Rural Development Board (RDA), the Department of Disaster Management, Department of Social Services without API, said BBS.
The officials also said that the prepared database is about six years old and has no usability as the socioeconomic condition of people shipped drastically due to the Covid-19 epidemic, economic recession, inflation, and migration, after formulating the database.
Importance of poverty database
The selection of beneficiaries is a big challenge in the implementation of social security programs of various departments of the government, revealed the project document proposed by the SID.
It revealed that the same individual and family are enjoying the benefits of multiple programmes as there is no single and integrated system for the selection of beneficiaries.
Besides, many poor and destitute individuals and families are not able to be included in any programme, the paper added.
The beneficiary coverage for social safety bet programmes of the government ranges between 32% and 34% of the total population, surpassing the poverty rate of 18.7%, revealed the Social Security Sector Action Plan prepared by the Socio-Economic Infrastructure Division of the Planning Commission.
The government allotted TK1,36,026 crore about 17% of the total budget in the current fiscal year to implement 140 projects and programmes under social safety net. Experts and economists believe that a large number of non-poor are included in such safety net programmes and a huge number of poor are being deprived.
Social protection programs in Bangladesh at present cover only one-third of the poor population revealed a World Bank report.
The report highlighted that 60% of the safety net beneficiaries in Bangladesh are non-poor.
The average transfer amount is about 11% of the total expenditures of poor households, in Bangladesh much lower than the global median ranging from 18 to 27%.
Even within the existing social protection budget, more effective targeting, better institutional coordination, and a more efficient program administrative system could substantially increase benefits to poor households, revealed the report.
It also said that even if average transfer amounts were unchanged, ensuring they reached the poorest households would reduce the poverty rate by 4.3 percentage points and lift nearly 5 million people out of poverty.
More than 46% of the beneficiaries of the government's social security program are not eligible for benefits, according to the mid-term progress monitoring report for the(NSSS by the General Economics Division of the Planning Commission.
Transferring benefits to the right people and eliminating the irregularities would help to uplift 1.07 crore people from below the poverty line without any additional cost.
Household Income and Expenditure Survey by the BBS revealed that 37.6% of households have received benefits from any social security programmes of 66 major programmes.
The rate was 44% in rural areas and 23.9% in urban areas - significantly higher than the poverty rate.
