Natural Resources: Basic info on extraction deals scanty

Bangladesh needs to make basic information about its natural resource extraction awards publicly available, said a recent report by the US State Department.

At present, it is not consistently made publicly available, according to the 2023 Fiscal Transparency Report.

The report, which was published on June 27, assessed the fiscal transparency of the governments that receive US assistance to help ensure "US taxpayer funds are used appropriately". 

As per the report, 44 countries including Bangladesh did not make significant progress in meeting the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency.

Among the South Asian countries, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka met the minimum requirements. Maldives made significant progress in meeting the minimum requirements, while Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan failed to. Bhutan was not assessed for the report.

The 2023 fiscal transparency review process evaluated whether the government publicly disclosed key budget documents, including expenditures broken down by ministry and revenues broken down by source and type.

The review process also evaluated whether the government had a supreme audit institution that meets international standards of independence and audits the government's annual financial statements and whether such audits are made publicly available.

It also assessed whether the process for awarding licences and contracts for natural resource extraction is outlined in law or regulation and followed in practice and whether basic information on such awards is publicly available.

While the Bangladesh government made its executive budget proposal publicly available, it did not make its end-of-year report publicly available within a reasonable period, it said.

The budget documents were not prepared according to the internationally accepted principles but provided a reasonably complete picture of the government's planned expenditures and revenue, including natural resource revenues.

However, the government did not break down expenditures to support executive offices.

The publicly available budget documents included financial allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises.

Although the government's supreme audit institution reviews the public accounts, the reports do not contain substantive findings and are not made publicly available within a reasonable period, the US State Department said.

Moreover, the supreme audit institution did not meet the international standards of independence.

Subsequently, the report called for preparing budget documents according to internationally accepted principles and mentioning the executive offices' expenditures in the budget.

The supreme audit institution must meet international standards of independence, has sufficient resources and publishes timely audit reports that contain substantive findings, recommendations and narratives.