The United States has said that Bangladesh’s interim government has taken steps to make procurement processes related to the country’s natural resources more open and transparent.
The observation appeared in the 2025 Fiscal Transparency Report, published on the US State Department’s website on Friday.
According to the report, the interim government has set criteria for contracts and approvals for natural resource extraction and is following them in practice. However, limited information has so far been made public regarding government procurement contracts.
The US State Department noted that financial transparency is a key element of any government administration, as it builds market confidence and provides a level playing field for US companies.
The 2025 report assessed 140 countries and organizations, finding that 71 met minimum transparency standards while 69 did not. Among these, 26 countries showed notable progress.
The report also highlighted that all ongoing direct negotiations or bargaining initiated during the previous government’s tenure have been suspended.
Due to the government change, Bangladesh’s supreme audit institution has so far published only a brief report, which is released to the public at a specified time. The report, however, noted that the institution is not independent by international standards.
To further improve financial transparency in Bangladesh, the report offered several recommendations, including: publishing reports within a reasonable time at the end of the fiscal year; preparing budget documents in line with internationally recognized standards; presenting executive department expenditures separately; including a complete picture of government income and expenditure in the budget; granting international-standard independence to the supreme audit institution with adequate resources and timely access to full budget documents; publishing recommendations, analyses, and full descriptions in audit reports; disclosing contracts and licenses for natural resource extraction; and making government procurement information public.
The report also claimed that during the previous government’s tenure, budget documents were not prepared according to international standards. It added that although the former government published executive budget proposals and approved budgets, it did not release reports on time at the end of the fiscal year.