Dhaka: The Bangladesh Foreign Ministry has said that the allegations made by Trump that two Bangladeshi organizations, whose names no one has even heard of, received 29 million dollars are not true.
The Foreign Ministry gave this information in a press release on Monday (March 3).
The Foreign Ministry said that a 29 million dollar project titled 'Strengthening Political Landscape (SPL) in Bangladesh' funded by USAID has been implemented in Bangladesh. Recently, US President Donald Trump gave some information about this project, which has created widespread confusion in the public mind. In this context, the Foreign Ministry has investigated the matter.
The investigation revealed that during President Trump's first term, USAID selected Democracy International (DI), registered in the United States, to implement this project. In the wake of the call for project proposals, many international organizations participated in the tender process and USAID made the decision by following a transparent competitive process. After signing the agreement in March 2017, DI started implementing the project. Later, the project period was extended and its funds came in phases.
Research shows that during President Trump's first term, Democracy International, registered in the United States, started implementing the SPL project in Bangladesh. Therefore, the allegation that it was provided to an organization owned by two individuals in Bangladesh is not true. In fact, such projects are implemented through the bilateral Development Objective Assistance Agreement (DOAG) between Bangladesh and the United States. In this case, individuals have no power to do anything.
Initially, the SPL project had a duration of 5 years and a budget of 14 million dollars. The project was managed by USAID and financed by USAID and the UK's development assistance agency DFID (now FCDO). DFID's commitment to finance this project was 10 million dollars.
The main objective of the SPL project was to reduce political violence and increase peace and harmony, create peaceful coexistence between political parties, increase the capacity of parties, improve the practice of internal democracy in parties, and encourage the development of representative leadership. Under the project, DI also conducts survey activities in Bangladesh. It is noted that USAID projects are required to follow the US government's financial management policy. This includes strict adherence to the financial audit process. Documents related to this are retained even after several years of the project's completion. Re-audits are conducted if necessary.