US offers eight suggestions to improve Bangladesh’s financial transparency

The United States has made eight recommendations to improve transparency in Bangladesh’s financial sector, pointing out areas of “information gaps” in the country’s budget documents.

The US State Department said on Saturday that the interim government has prepared the budget using the previous government’s framework and has taken some steps to introduce reforms aimed at greater financial transparency.

It added, “The prior government made its executive budget proposal and enacted the budget publicly available, including online. 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.”

The report, titled “2025 Fiscal Transparency Report: Bangladesh”, was released by the State Department on Saturday.

According to the report published on the department’s website, the budget disclosed information on debt and provided a reasonable picture of the government’s planned expenditure and revenue.

The government, however, did not prepare a breakdown of expenses for the executive branch, and a full picture of revenue and expenditure was not presented in the budget.

“Due to the change in government, 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 report read.

“The supreme audit institution did not meet international standards of independence.”

The report added that while legal standards were followed in contracts and licences for natural resource extraction, limited information was disclosed on public procurement.

The interim government, however, ensured that all natural resource extraction processes were open and transparent, and suspended all direct procurement negotiations taken up by the previous government.

The State Department set out the following recommendations for Bangladesh:

• 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.