By NAN Staff Writer, NewsAmericas Now
News Americas, WASHINGTON, D.C., Thurs. August 13: Washington just called out four Caribbean governments by name for fiscal tranparency, and the receipts are public.
Belize, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Suriname are among 67 governments worldwide the U.S. State Department says failed to meet minimum fiscal transparency standards in its newly released 2026 Fiscal Transparency Report, out Tuesday. Of 139 governments and one entity assessed, only 73 passed. This isn’t a one-off audit, Congress mandates the review every single year specifically to track whether U.S. taxpayer dollars sent abroad as foreign assistance are actually being watched properly.
Where each Caribbean nation fell short
Belize made its enacted budget, year-end report, and debt information public, but sat on its executive budget proposal well past a reasonable timeframe. Its supreme audit institution doesn’t meet international independence standards and doesn’t publish findings promptly either. Washington’s fix: get the budget proposal out faster, and give the auditors real independence.
The Dominican Republic came closest to a clean bill of health, publishing its executive budget, enacted budget, and year-end report on time and online, with information judged generally reliable and complete. Its single lingering problem: the supreme audit institution still isn’t independent enough.
Haiti’s report is the most damning of the four. Yes, it published its enacted budget and year-end report, but not its executive budget proposal, and the government was found to be running off-budget accounts with zero oversight or audit, money moving with essentially no one watching. Its supreme audit institution failed independence standards and sat on its findings instead of publishing them. Public procurement contracts weren’t disclosed either. Washington’s message to Haiti: kill the off-budget accounts, or audit them properly, and start showing your work.
Suriname actually has one thing the other three don’t: a supreme audit institution that genuinely meets international independence standards. But the mining sector tells a different story, Suriname has laws on the books for awarding natural resource extraction contracts, and the report found the government didn’t appear to actually follow them. Basic information on mining concessions wasn’t made public either. And the country’s sovereign wealth fund? Perfectly legal framework, sitting completely empty, nothing in it to even disclose.
Why this matters beyond a report card
This isn’t just Washington playing accountability referee for sport. The State Department says fiscal transparency directly shapes how competitive American businesses can be abroad, less corruption risk, cleaner contract-awarding, and required debt disclosure that protects against predatory lending deals.
And the timing lands hard. These four nations are already under a magnifying glass on other fronts, Guyana’s MV Barima accountability crisis dominating headlines, Haiti’s TPS collapse sending deportation flights soaring. Now add: the U.S. government itself, on paper, saying it can’t fully see where the money’s going in four Caribbean capitals.
NewsAmericasNow will continue tracking fiscal transparency and accountability issues across the region.
Discussion about this post