The government is giving local administration more power to decide how to spend public money in their areas.

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Secretariat on Monday.

Cabinet secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan briefed media after the meeting.

‘The finance ministry placed a bill to the cabinet proposing more control to the authorities at every level over how they spend the budget. After a series of intense review and discussion over the bill, the cabinet approves the proposal to increase the administrative power in spending public money at divisions, district and upazila levels, departments, organisations, and projects under ministries, and local administrations, keeping the power of the ministries unchanged in terms of spending the allocated budget.’   

As per the decision, spending limit up to Tk 50 crore by the administrative head of each ministry has been kept unchanged. But, the limit for expenditure at local administrations is yet to be decided, said the secretary.

He said the head of a department or any project currently is allowed to spend up to Tk 14 crore.

The finance ministry has proposed to raise the limit to Tk 30 crore. But, the allocation method of the expenditure among the distinctive authorities will be decided later through discussion, the cabinet secretary added.