Dhaka: Urging all concerned to keep up the country’s ongoing development pace, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday asked the public servants to be careful so that government funds allocated for development projects are not misused in any way.

‘Formulating any development project shouldn’t be based only on how to spend, you (public servants) will have to consider the available resources alongside the country’s development and the welfare of people. Stay alert so that public funds are not misused,’ she said.

The Prime Minister was addressing a function marking the signing of the Annual Performance Agreement (APA) by various Ministries and Divisions with their respective subordinate bodies at the Prime Minister’s Office in Dhaka.

Sheikh Hasina said once there was a notion that public resources could be dumped into the sea. ‘Now people should give up that concept as public funds have to be spent on welfare of the nation.’

She mentioned that Bangladesh has gained so such capacity that almost 90 per cent of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) funds come from local resources although the country had to beg from others going from door to door in the past for it.

‘Development programmes should be framed plugging all the loopholes of misuse as we want to stand on our own feet and move to the global arena with our heads high,’ she told the public servants.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Public Administration Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam, PM’s Principal Secretary Md Abul Kalam Azad and Women and Children Affairs Secretary Nasima Begum also spoke on the occasion.