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World Bank Group
Resolute against Corruption
amid Historic Global Challenges in Fiscal Year 2022
WASHINGTON, October 12, 2022 — The World Bank Group today highlighted its
efforts to advance the
fight against fraud and corruption in the development projects
it finances, with the release of its Sanctions System Annual Report for fiscal year 2022.
The joint report of the World Bank Group’s Integrity Vice
Presidency (INT), Office of Suspension and Debarment (OSD), and Sanctions
Board, illustrates how in a time of increasingly complex global challenges
and historic development support by the World Bank Group, the institution’s
sanctions system was resolute in maintaining its anticorruption oversight of
the institution’s development financing.
“While our institution continues to provide historic levels of
support around the world, it remains critical that these funds are used in a
transparent and accountable manner and only for their intended purposes. We
must be continually vigilant against corruption in the projects supported by
the Bank Group,” noted World
Bank Group President David Malpass in the report’s foreword. “The
offices that comprise the sanctions system work together to send a clear
message: corruption has no place in development.”
INT is the independent unit within the World Bank Group that
works to detect, deter, and prevent fraud and corruption in World Bank
Group-financed operations and by World Bank Group staff and corporate
vendors. OSD is the first tier of the World Bank’s adjudicative system and is
tasked with impartially reviewing whether there is sufficient evidence that
an entity investigated by INT has engaged in sanctionable misconduct and, if
so, determining an appropriate sanction. The Sanctions Board is an
independent administrative tribunal that serves as the second and final tier
of review for contested sanctions cases.
Together, the offices of the sanctions system
play a critical role in helping the World Bank Group safeguard the resources
it deploys from the damaging impacts that fraud and corruption can have on development.
In fiscal year 2022, the World Bank Group
sanctioned 35 firms and individuals, of which 32 were debarred with
conditional release, making them ineligible to participate in project and
operations financed by the institutions of the World Bank Group. Three firms
were sanctioned with conditional non-debarment, leaving them eligible, as
long as they continue to meet certain agreed-upon conditions while under
sanction.
The institution also recognized 72
cross-debarments from other multilateral development banks (MDBs), while 30
World Bank Group debarments were eligible for recognition by other MDBs.
A full list of the firms and individuals
currently debarred by the World Bank Group can be found here: www.worldbank.org/debarr.
Fiscal Year 2022 Summary
The World Bank Group’s sanction system
continued to carry out its anticorruption mission and helped support the
institution in bringing greater integrity, transparency, and accountability
to the development operations supported by the World Bank Group’s financing.
In fiscal year 2022:
- INT received 3,380 complaint submissions, opened 330
new preliminary external investigations, and started 48 new external
investigations, while closing 31 existing external investigations. INT
submitted 18 sanctions cases, and 12 settlements to OSD for review. An
additional three settlements were submitted to the IFC Evaluation
Officer for review.
- OSD reviewed 15 cases and 12 settlements, temporarily
suspended 14 firms and six individuals, and sanctioned 11 respondents
via uncontested determinations.
- The Sanctions Board published four fully-reasoned decisions resolving
four contested sanctions cases against six respondents. The Sanctions
Board convened virtual hearings in one of those cases.
Each of the sanctions related to a finding
that the firm or individual engaged in at least one of the institution’s five
sanctionable practices—fraud, corruption, collusion, coercion, or
obstruction—in connection with a World Bank Group-funded project.
- The Integrity Compliance Office (ICO), which sits
within INT and works with sanctioned firms and individuals to institute
reforms in alignment with the World Bank Group’s Integrity Compliance Guidelines and
to reduce the opportunities for future misconduct, engaged with 81
sanctioned parties toward meeting their conditions for release.
- In addition, the ICO determined that 22 entities had
met their conditions for release from sanction and that two entities had
met the conditions for the conversion of their debarments with
conditional release to conditional non-debarments.
The offices of the sanctions system also
continued to share their anticorruption knowledge and insights:
- INT developed and facilitated trainings to nearly
2,800 World Bank Group and project implementation staff, government
officials, and private sector representatives across multiple regions
aimed at building local capacity to identify, manage, and mitigate
integrity risks in development operations.
- OSD led the organization of a two-day symposium on
Supranational Responses to Corruption in Vienna, Austria, addressing
current and prospective anticorruption efforts at the supranational
level.
- OSD organized multiple events regarding the Global Suspension & Debarment Directory,
which captures data and information on the exclusion systems of 23
different countries and institutions.
- The Sanctions Board Secretariat and OSD jointly
organized and hosted the second MDB workshop among first-tier officers
and appellate body secretariats to discuss substantive sanctions issues
and other matters of common interest across the major development
institutions.
- The Sanctions Board Secretariat authored timely
thought pieces on the topics of expedited reviews and provisional relief in
Sanctions Board processes and the fair and appropriate imposition of debarments.
Contacts:
News Release
2023/017/INT
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