Over Tk 21 billion lost to corruption in climate projects during Awami League rule, TIB says

The report finds that corruption affected 54 percent of the total allocations

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has said more than half of the funds allocated to climate finance from the national budget during the previous Awami League administration has been lost to corruption.

From 2010 to 2024, the organisation said, the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCT), approved project allocations worth $458.5 million.

Of that amount, an estimated $248.4 million (Tk 21.106 billion) was lost to corruption.

The report, presented at a briefing in Dhaka on Tuesday, found that corruption affected 54 percent of the total allocations.

The event, held at the MIDAS Center in Dhanmondi, marked the release of TIB’s research report titled “Challenges and Way Forward in Ensuring Good Governance in Climate Finance in Bangladesh”.

According to TIB, the data reveals a pattern of projects being approved through political influence, collusion, and nepotism.

It added that officials of the BCCT, which manages the fund, failed to take effective measures to prevent irregularities.

The findings were based on an analysis of 942 projects implemented under 12 different funds between 2003 and August 2024.

The study also examined the 2010–2024 period separately.

The Awami League returned to power in 2009 and governed for 15 and a half years until its was ousted by a mass uprising in August 2024.

Following the political changeover, reports of inflated costs and widespread corruption in government projects began to surface, prompting the interim administration to cancel several projects it deemed politically motivated.

The report said Bangladesh needs about $12.5 billion annually to address the impacts of climate change, but between 2015 and 2023, the country received only $86.2 million a year from national and international sources -- just 0.7 percent of the estimated need.

TIB also noted shortcomings in project evaluation, saying that of the 585 projects completed by 2024, only 90 -- or 15.4 percent -- underwent short-term assessments, while 495 projects, or 84.6 percent, were never evaluated for their impact.

At the press conference, TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said Bangladesh requires $10 billion to $12 billion in climate compensation each year.

“But from 2003 to 2024, we received only $1.2 billion,” he said. “That is absolutely negligible.