Several ministers and a section of journalists in a press conference made comments and raised questions following TIB's publication of corruption index on July 5.

The TIB has noted with concern that confusing comments and questions are being raised about the source of funding of TIB's work, a TIB press release yesterday said, adding that TIB wants to put on record the following in order to help remove any information gap.

"TIB is registered under the NGO Affairs Bureau of the Government of Bangladesh. All foreign donations received and spent by TIB take place only with the approval of the Bureau.

"The "Making Waves" project under which TIB is currently conducting its various activities, is supported by a consortium of four donors, namely DFID of UK, Danida of Denmark, Swedish Sida and Norwegian government.

"As per relevant rules of the Government of Bangladesh, no money under such grants can be received or spent unless the project profile and detailed itemised budget have been approved by the NGO Affairs Bureau.

TIB received the first approval for the project on November 27, 2002, which has since been renewed annually, the press release said, adding that all earlier activities with foreign donations also went through the same process.

Needless to mention, all the above-mentioned donors are not only leading sources of funding for numerous projects in the non-government sector, but are also among the leading development partners of the Government of Bangladesh, it said.

"A misleading comment has been made that as high as 80 per cent of the project funds of donors from which TIB received support went for consultancies by foreign experts.

"We firmly declare that this is absolutely baseless. The approved budget for the project includes a provision for technical assistance for capacity building, which accounts for only 2 per cent of the total budget, available only at the request of TIB. Services of foreign experts can be solicited only if the relevant expertise is not available within Bangladesh," the press release said.

"It should be added that TIB has been developing a Trust fund consisting contributions from its trustees, regular monthly contribution of employees, membership fees, sale proceeds of publications, and savings from project overhead.

"TIB has an institutional Code of Ethics, which provides, inter alia, that TIB shall not accept funds that might impair its independence to pursue its goals. TIB accepts funds only from such donors who share TIB's anti-corruption values and goals.

"TIB has never received any funds from organisations such as Enron and Worldcom - a speculation raised by the honourable Law Minister in parliament on July 9. Regrettably, this speculation has been raised in spite of the fact that in response to the same question raised by him last year through the media, he was given details about TI and TIB's funding in writing on May 3, 2005, which he acknowledged also in writing."