In a major development for governance and economic accountability, the United States government’s 2025 Fiscal Transparency Report has spotlighted Bangladesh’s new direction: all future natural resource extraction contracts will be awarded through fully open and transparent procurement processes, a decisive break from the past.
The report, released Friday, acknowledges that while Bangladesh’s fiscal systems still face structural gaps, the country’s non-political interim government has taken “significant reform steps” with the most impactful being its overhaul of how the nation’s oil, gas, minerals, and other natural wealth are licensed and contracted.
According to the US report, the Interim Government has suspended all direct negotiations for natural resource extraction previously initiated by the former administration, many of which lacked public scrutiny or competitive bidding.
“The IG moved to make all procurements for natural resource extraction fully open and transparent,” the report states signaling a watershed moment in Bangladesh’s resource governance.
This means no more backroom deals. No more opaque licensing. From now on, extraction rights, whether for offshore gas blocks, coal mines, or mineral deposits, must be awarded through public, competitive, and auditable processes.
According to the report, budget documents under the previous administration were generally reliable and made publicly available online. They offered information on debt obligations and revenues, including those from natural resources, and provided allocations to state-owned enterprises. However, shortcomings remained such as the failure to release end-of-year reports in a timely manner, incomplete revenue and expenditure data, and limited transparency around public procurement contracts.
The US report also observed that Bangladesh’s supreme audit institution did not meet international standards of independence, though it released some summarized findings within a reasonable timeframe.
The report outlined several steps Bangladesh could take to further strengthen fiscal transparency, including:
Publishing end-of-year reports within a reasonable period;
Preparing budgets in line with internationally accepted principles;
Breaking down expenditures for executive offices;
Publishing a fuller picture of revenues and expenditures;
Ensuring an independent and adequately resourced audit institution;
Releasing comprehensive audit reports with substantive findings; and
Making all natural resource awards and public procurement contracts accessible to the public.
The US assessment concluded that while gaps remain, the IG’s commitment to transparent procurement in the natural resource sector represents a significant step forward in accountability and governance.