Dhaka [Bangladesh] February 25 : USAID had avoided normal government official channel to finance USD 29 million to implement a controversial project to strengthen political landscape in Bangladesh, a senior government NGO Affairs official said.
The NGO Affairs Bureau is a government body which facilitates the activities of the NGOs operating with foreign assistance and registered under the Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Ordinance 1978 in the country and ensures their accountability to the state.
"Donald Trump said about 29 million dollars, we did not identify that amount has come through our NGO Affairs Bureau. Because if they can tell which NGOs involved then specially we can identify, but overall we can see that amount of dollars is not yet spent for NGO", Md. Anwar Hossain, Director General (In charge) of NGO Affairs Bureau, told ANI in an interview.
In reply to a question whether USAID (United States Agency for International Development) provided the money bypassing NGO Affairs Bureau, he said, "I can not speak about this".
Md. Anwar Hossain said after the suspension of USAID funding, Bangladesh NGO sector is not in a deep crisis immediately; but in the long run it will have an adverse effect on NGO fundings.
"Our NGOs get help from the different countries of the world. So sometimes they are may be some ... you know at the time of COVID, at the time of disaster in Turkey, sometimes decreased the foreign funds; but they diverted to the another area, another countries, I think this (USAID suspension) will effect but they will explore the other donors to recover this situation", Hossain said.
There are 2,640 registered NGOs in Bangladesh which provide several jobs in the country.
"USAID has not suspended the Rohingya project. Nearly 70 NGOs are getting US based foreign donations", he said.
Earlier on Friday, speaking at the White House US President Donald Trump targeted a series of USAID projects that were recently cancelled based on recommendations of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk.
"29 million USD to strengthen the political landscape in Bangladesh, went to a firm that nobody ever heard of" said Trump, adding, "Can you imagine you have a little firm. You get 10,000 here, 10,000 there, and then we get 29 million USD from the US govt. They had two people working in that firm, two people, I think they're very happy, they're very rich," he said.
He went on to suggest that "they'll be on the cover of a very good business magazine pretty soon, for being great scammers".
According to the US State Department, over the past 50 years, the United States has invested over eight billion dollars to improve the lives of Bangladeshis.