World Bank president Jim Yong Kim has said they cannot consider financing the Padma Bridge construction until being assured of a complete and fair investigation into the reported graft in the project.
Kim spelled out the condition on Wednesday in a speech on ‘anticorruption’ at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, according to a copy of his speech posted on the WB website.
The WB chief executive’s statement came a couple days after finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith had said he would visit Washington this month to discuss the fate of Padma Bridge project with Kim.
Construction of the bridge has remained suspended since June last when the WB cancelled its $1.2 billion credit earmarked for the mega infrastructure project alleging a ‘conspiracy of corruption’ in its implementation.
Insufficient response of Dhaka to the evidence of corruption forced them to terminate the credit programme, said Kim, adding that he had no intention to pre-empt things as legal and other processes had to run their courses.
‘Until certain conditions are met to heighten oversight in the project and give assurance that a complete
and fair criminal investigation is under way, we cannot consider financing the bridge,’ he said categorically.
‘I say this knowing how much this bridge means to the people and [the] economy [of] the southwest of Bangladesh. It is a steel lifeline linking them to opportunity,’ he said.
The government is ‘frustrated’ as the WB has been setting ‘one condition after another’ for the probe being run by the Anti-Corruption Commission into the reported graft in the project’s tender process. It had even asked the bank to let it know about its decision on the project funding by a deadline that expired on Thursday.
Kim, however, noted that the WB was currently engaged in more than 30 projects with commitments to the tune of $4.3 billion. ‘Our lack of tolerance for corruption does not mean that we ignore the larger development picture,’ he said.
A Reuters report quoting the WB president said on Wednesday that the bank must do more than just pointing fingers when it uncovered corruption. It should work with countries to fix the problem by sharing experiences on effective ways to root out graft, said Kim.
It has been estimated that between $20 billion to $40 billion is stolen from the developing countries a year, said the WB chief in his maiden speech, on challenges in fighting corruption, since his taking over the charge in July last.
The bank should not only gather and share data on fighting corruption but also learn from the experiences of governments that have successfully combated graft, he said.
Corruption is a major impediment to development, said Kim, adding that the WB should not shy away from naming offenders publicly.
‘We have to send a signal that if we detect corruption, we will call it out and move forward, and will have to have a whole discussion again on a lending program[me],’ he said without any ambiguity.
-With New Age input
