Bangladesh for the first time made significant progress towards meeting international requirements on the financial front, but still fell short of requisite standards, said a US official assessment report.
The US Fiscal Transparency Report 2022, prepared by the US Department of State on countries that receive assistance from the United States, made the evaluation.
The American foreign office has published the report since 2008 in consultation with other relevant US agencies.
About the performance of Bangladesh, the report said that the government’s supreme audit institution reviewed the government’s accounts but its reports did not contain substantive findings and were not made publicly available within a reasonable period.
The supreme audit institution did not meet international standards of independence, it said.
The US report pointed out that the government specified in law or regulation and appeared to follow in practice the criteria and procedures for awarding natural resource-extraction contracts and licences.
It has noted that basic information on natural resource-extraction awards was not consistently made publicly available.
However, the report says that during the review period, the government made significant progress by publishing its end-of-year report within a reasonable period.
It also made its executive budget proposal and enacted a budget widely and easily accessible to the public, including online, the report said.
Information on debt obligations was publicly available. Budget documents provided a reasonably complete picture of the government’s planned expenditures and revenue streams, including natural resource revenues.
Financial allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises were included in publicly available budget documents, the US report further says on the advances made.
That information in the budget, it adds, was considered generally reliable, although budget documents were not prepared according to internationally accepted principles.
According to the report Bangladesh’s fiscal transparency could be improved with several measures. They are: preparing budget documents according to internationally accepted principles, ensuring the supreme audit institution meets international standards of independence and has sufficient resources, publishing timely audit reports that contain substantive findings, recommendations, and narratives, and making basic information about natural resource-extraction awards publicly and consistently available.
The Congressionally mandated Fiscal Transparency Report (FTR) is a tool to identify deficiencies and support needed for changes.
The Office of Macroeconomic Affairs (OMA) of State’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs (EB) prepares the annual FTR in consultation with State’s Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
As directed by Congress, EB/OMA evaluates data on fiscal transparency collected by posts in 141 countries which are eligible to receive US foreign assistance against minimum requirements and publishes the results on the Department’s website annually.
Fiscal transparency informs citizens how government and tax revenues are spent and is a critical element of effective public financial management.
Transparency provides citizens a window into government budgets and those citizens, in turn, hold governments accountable. It underpins market confidence and sustainability, the US State Department says in the report.
