Accountability

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World Bank’s anti-corruption “charade”

17 June 2010

In 2007, the Volcker Panel was convened to review the World Bank’s anti-corruption Department of Institutional Integrity (see Update 57). US NGO the Governance Accountability Project (GAP) alleges that accounts published by the Bank’s internal court, the administrative tribunal, show that the head of the department, Suzanne Rich Folsom, was “systematically informed about which of her staff members spoke to reviewers and what they said”. GAP alleges that Folsom “doctored documents, altered practices and intimidated witnesses”, leading staff members to sue the Bank. Bank management has reportedly done nothing to re-examine the panel’s recommendations.

Fresh revelations have again called into question a review of the Bank's anti-corruption unit.