Only 20 per cent of the Tk 10,000 crore special fund kept in the 2020–21 national budget to deal with the Covid pandemic has been spent while there has been a surge in Covid deaths and infections of late.

According to Finance Division officials, Tk 1,455.08 crore was disbursed in two instalments for the procurement of vaccine from India and some Tk 364 crore to release imported equipment for treating the Covid patients. 

Earlier, Tk 89 crore was given to pay for entertainment cost of health workers engaged in the mass Covid vaccination and another Tk 7 crore for the inoculation campaign and awareness programme from the fund treated as a block allocation by the finance ministry.    

Finance ministry officials apprehend that over 70 per cent of the fund would remain unutilised in the current fiscal year to expire on June 30.

Economists and health experts resent that the lion’s share of the fund would remain unspent for lack of capacity and efficiency of the relevant government agencies amid the recent deterioration of the pandemic since March.

The country has witnessed a sudden surge in Covid deaths and infections since late March with the situation worsening further in April as over 1,000 deaths were recorded in the first 15 days of the month.

Former Bangladesh Bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed regretted that the government had learnt nothing from the first wave of the outbreak.

It failed to improve the pandemic management although there was no shortage of fund, he noted. 

The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research in a report on April 18 revealed that nearly half of the total Covid patients who succumbed to the disease in the country till then died between January 28 and April 15.

Though the South African variant of the coronavirus has been blamed for the terrifying second wave the government agencies cannot avoid responsibilities for the worsening situation, said health experts.

The country badly lags behind in preparations, including installation of intensive care units and general beds, for treating the Covid patients, said Professor Syed Abdul Hamid of the Institute of Health Economics under Dhaka University.

The government has done almost nothing to increase the local production of medical oxygen as the daily domestic supply of medical oxygen by three producers– Linde Bangladesh Limited, Spectra Oxygen Limited and Islam Oxygen Limited – has been unchanged at 170 tonnes over the last one year.

Since March the demand for oxygen, one of the key items for treating Covid patients, has increased 10-fold with import from India meeting a part of the additional demand.

Abdul Hamid said that massive changes were needed to improve the efficiency of the health ministry officials to properly utilise the Covid fund allocated in the national budget.

Professor Be-Nazir Ahmed, a former DGHS director for disease control, too, supported the view of Hamid.

He observed that inefficient officials were plenty in the health ministry and its field-level setups.

Health experts were also critical of the government’s sole reliance on India in procuring Covid vaccine.     

For the procurement of three crore doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India Private Limited, the finance ministry released Tk 719 crore in favour of the ministry of health in November 2020 as the first instalment.

The second instalment of some Tk 735 crore was disbursed in January this year.

In November 2020, the health ministry signed a tripartite contract with the Serum and Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited to import three crore doses of the vaccine, 50 lakh in each month from January, 2021.

But the Serum has sent 70 lakh doses until now while Bangladesh faced over a 50 per cent deficit in the availability of the vaccine doses as per the deal.

Finance Division additional secretary Nazma Mobarek said that the government was going to distribute again Tk 2,500 to each of over 35 lakh informal-sector workers from the special fund.

Finance ministry officials calculated that around Tk 900 crore would be needed for the purpose, which would raise the special fund utilisation to around 30 per cent. 

Former World Bank Dhaka Office lead economist Zahid Hussain said that distribution of more cash assistance was an imperative to improve the purchasing power of poor people amid the health crisis. 

The government stimulus funds worth over Tk 1.24 lakh crore announced in the wake of the pandemic’s first wave was mostly availed by the affluent section, noted Zahid.