Bangladesh has moved to make all procurements for natural resource extraction fully transparent: US

The United States (US) has said Bangladesh's interim government has moved to make all procurements for natural resource extraction fully open and transparent, suspending all previous or ongoing direct negotiations led by the prior government.

In its Congressionally-mandated 2025 Fiscal Transparency Report released on 19 September, the US listed a number of steps that Bangladesh could take to improve fiscal transparency.

The government has specified in law or regulation, and appeared to follow in practice, the criteria and procedures for awarding natural resource extraction contracts and licences and provided limited information on public procurement contracts, the report said. 

Due to the change in government, the report in its Bangladesh chapter said, the government's supreme audit institution did not review the government's accounts, but it released some summarised findings made publicly available within a reasonable period.

The supreme audit institution did not meet international standards of independence, according to the report received from the US Department of State.

Steps Bangladesh could take to improve fiscal transparency, per the report: making its end-of-year report publicly available within a reasonable period; preparing budget documents according to internationally accepted principles; breaking down expenditures to support executive offices in the budget; providing in the budget a substantially complete picture of the government's revenues and expenditures; ensuring the supreme audit institution meets international standards of independence and has sufficient resources to obtain timely and direct access to the entire annual executed budget; publishing timely audit reports that contain substantive findings, recommendations, and narratives; making basic information for natural resource extraction awards publicly available; and publishing information on public procurement contracts.

Further comments

The report noted that during the review period, a non-political interim government replaced the government previously responsible for budget creation.

The interim government generally followed the budget recommendations and implementation procedures of the prior government and initiated significant reforms to improve fiscal transparency, it said.

The prior government made its executive budget proposal and enacted budget publicly available, including online, it added.

The report mentioned that it did not make its end-of-year report publicly available within a reasonable period.

Information in the budget was considered generally reliable, although budget documents were not prepared according to internationally accepted principles, said the US report.

Information on debt obligations was publicly available. Budget documents provided a reasonably complete picture of the government's planned expenditures and revenue, including natural resource revenues, it added.

However, according to the report, the government did not break down expenditures to support executive offices, nor did the budget provide a substantially complete picture of revenues and expenditures.

Publicly available budget documents included financial allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises, it said.

Statement from the office of the spokesperson for the US Department of State

Fiscal transparency is a critical element of effective public financial management, helps build market confidence, underpins global economic stability, and levels the playing field for US firms, said the office of the spokesperson for the US Department of State. 

"It fosters greater government accountability by providing a window into government budgets and spending. Annual reviews of the fiscal transparency also help ensure appropriate use of US taxpayer funds.

"In this year's report, Department officials found that 71 of 140 governments and entities assessed met the minimum fiscal transparency requirements. Sixty-nine did not meet the minimum fiscal transparency requirements. Of these, however, 26 made significant progress toward meeting the minimum fiscal transparency requirements."

It continued, "Consistent with the requirement in the FY 2024 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, as continued by the FY25 Continuing Resolution, the 2025 report described the minimum fiscal transparency requirements, reviewed governments, most of which were identified as recipients of US assistance in the 2014 Fiscal Transparency Report, and further assesses those that did not meet the minimum fiscal transparency requirements during the review period of 1 January to 31 December 2024.

"The report also indicates whether governments that did not meet those requirements made significant progress to publicly disclose national budget documentation, contracts, and licences during the review period. The Department of State evaluated the public availability, substantial completeness, and reliability of budget documents, as well as the transparency of processes for awarding government contracts and licences and public procurement contracts."