WB to raise capacity to probe graft

The anti-graft chief at the World Bank has said he has drawn four major lessons for strengthening its investigations after probing allegations of high-level corruption in the Padma bridge project in Bangladesh.
Asked what lessons his office had learned from the project, Leonard McCarthy, vice president in charge of Integrity at the World Bank, told the Trust Law, an international news service of Thomson Reuters Foundation, in an email:
“To sharpen our lens to the risk associated with mobilisation payments: This refers to the potential for financial wrongdoing when the World Bank makes loan disbursements at the early stages of a major development project.
“To find ways to better protect whistle blowers: The World Bank relies on reports from its staff, contractors or citizens to trigger its investigations.
“To adjust our investigative approach in difficult cases to go beyond documentary evidence: Fraud is the easiest offence for World Bank investigators to prove because they can rely on loan documents, receipts and bank statements. Getting access to witnesses, however, can prove more difficult and may require cooperation from distant countries.
“To develop an advanced understanding of countries' criminal and evidentiary laws and aspects of public international law that can support our work."
The Integrity Vice-Presidency is working with anti-corruption agencies and investigators worldwide to share more of their techniques and knowledge in pursuing cases, and it is signing an increasing number of mutual cooperation agreements, known as memorandums of understanding, with individual countries, added McCarthy.
The comment comes just days after the government on Friday pulled out of World Bank financing for the massive $2.9 billion bridge.
The 6.15-kilometre bridge is designed to connect the impoverished southwestern region of country with Dhaka and Chittagong.
The World Bank in June last year said it had found “credible evidence” of corruption in the project and suspended its $1.2 billion interest-free loan, though it later agreed on terms to resume funding based upon a thorough corruption investigation.
Matteson Ellis, a lawyer based in Austin, Texas, who specialises in international anti-corruption, praised the World Bank for showing enormous political will in standing its ground on a project that could bring immense development benefits to Bangladesh.
“The Bank sends a strong message to the international community when it chooses to embrace integrity in the face of such serious consequences,” Ellis said, according to a Trust Law on Saturday.
“The Bank would set a negative precedent for its dealings with the numerous other developing countries it supports throughout the world. Yes, Bangladesh might now turn to less scrupulous lenders for support. But this is no reason for The World Bank to compromise on its own principles," he added.