World Bank Resolute against Corruption amid Historic Global Challenges in Fiscal Year 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.
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.
