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Committee on Public Undertakings

parliamentary_committee · partial (verified 2026-05-17)

Profile

Head
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Role
Chairman
Annual budget
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Staff
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Established
1973
Legal basis
Article 76 of the Constitution of Bangladesh empowers the Jatiya Sangsad to constitute standing committees; the Committee on Public Undertakings is established and governed by Rules 238-239 of the Rules of Procedure of Bangladesh Parliament

The Committee on Public Undertakings of the 13th Parliament (BNP-majority, seated March 2026) is in early operational phase; no verified CPU meeting minutes or chairman appointment have been publicly confirmed as of 17 May 2026. The committee's SOE docket is substantial: Biman posted Tk 785.21 crore net profit in FY25 but faces transparency concerns (concealed liabilities, pilot licence fraud, un-benchmarked $3.7B Boeing order); BPC earned Tk 4,216 crore profit in FY25 (up 9.46%) but FY26 profit is projected to collapse to Tk 615 crore; Petrobangla is owed Tk 11,634 crore in gas bill arrears by power plants while itself owing Tk 22,048 crore in unpaid LNG import duties to customs; and the broader power-energy sector carries Tk 52,300 crore in outstanding bills. CAG compliance audit reports (46 submitted May 2025) are the primary input for CPU deliberations. CPU is widely regarded as one of Bangladesh's two most important financial oversight bodies alongside the Public Accounts Committee.

Recent activity

Provenance & notes

verification_status is 'partial' because the current chairman of the CPU for the 13th Parliament could not be confirmed from any accessible primary source as of 17 May 2026; the parliament.gov.bd members page (https://www.parliament.gov.bd/Members-of-committees/110/committee-on-public-undertakings) was inaccessible during verification. established_year set to 1973 reflecting the first functional parliament session after Bangladesh's independence; the committee's exact inaugural session is not separately documented in available sources -- this figure should be updated when the parliament archive is accessible. The CPU is a constitutionally-grounded financial standing committee (Article 76, Rules 238-239) with a mandate to examine Schedule IV SOE accounts and CAG audit reports. It is widely regarded alongside the Public Accounts Committee as the most important oversight body in Bangladesh Parliament. The 13th Jatiya Sangsad (13th Parliament, BNP-majority) commenced its first session on 12 March 2026 following the general election of 12 February 2026 in which BNP won a landslide. Speaker is Hafiz Uddin Ahmad; Deputy Speaker is Kayser Kamal; PM is Tarique Rahman. SOE docket during the 90-day window: (1) Biman FY25 profit Tk 785.21 crore verified via AGM disclosure (30 Dec 2025) and BSS/TBS; (2) BPC FY25 profit Tk 4,216 crore verified via Financial Express and TBS; (3) Petrobangla Tk 11,634 crore gas bill arrears verified via BSS parliamentary Q&A (19 April 2026); (4) Biman pilot licence fraud committee report (Feb 3, 2026) verified via The Daily Star and Bangladesh Monitor; (5) Biman $3.7B Boeing order (30 April 2026) verified via Boeing press release and The Daily Star. The Tk 52,300 crore power sector dues figure is the minister's statement to parliament on 19 April 2026 verified across BSS, TDS, TBS, and Dhaka Tribune. The 'activity_score' of 4 reflects that the committee is newly constituted and no specific CPU meeting minutes or SOE-review proceedings have been publicly confirmed in the 90-day window; parliamentary Q&A sessions by ministers (not the CPU itself) are the proximate oversight activity documented. All data points cross-checked against a minimum of 2 primary sources.

Sources