The World Bank Group Sanctions Process and Its Recent Reforms

The World Bank Group Sanctions Process and Its Recent Reforms
Author: Anne-Marie Leroy
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 53
Release: 2012
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821389696

The World Bank is one of the world's premier international financial institutions. It provides low-interest loans, interest-free credits, and grants to developing countries for a wide array of purposes that include investments in education, health, public administration, infrastructure, financial and private sector development, agriculture, and environmental and natural resource management, with aggregate new lending commitments of approximately $60 billion and aggregate outstanding loans and credits of $230 billion in Fiscal Year 2010. With the financial support provided by the Bank, borrowers implement projects and programs, including the procurement of goods, works, and services necessary to carry out the project or program activities. The study begins by outlining the principal features of the Bank Group's sanctions process as it exists today (part two) and sketches some the key consideration underlying reform of the Bank's sanctions process (part three). It then describes how those considerations have influenced the historical evolution of the sanctions process (part four), with particular focus on the recent changes that the Bank has adopted to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and procedural of that process (part five). Finally, it concludes by reflecting on some of the longer-term implications of the reform process to date (part six).

Doing Business 2020

Doing Business 2020
Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2019-11-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1464814414

Seventeen in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 190 economies, Doing Business 2020 measures aspects of regulation affecting 10 areas of everyday business activity.

Rethinking the World Bank's Sanctions System

Rethinking the World Bank's Sanctions System
Author: Christopher R. Yukins
Publisher:
Total Pages: 7
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

The World Bank is reviewing its system for suspending and debarring contractors (known formally as the World Bank sanctions system). The system is used to suspend and debar contractors that have engaged in fraud or corruption (and other enumerated bad acts) related to Bank-financed projects. After reviewing the sanctions process, and identifying what appear to be the Bank's current goals in its sanctions system (stemming reputational and fiduciary risks), the article recommends that the World Bank defer finalizing any reforms until it concludes its assessment of first principles, and has at hand all the data necessary to assess the sanctions system against those first principles. Reform of the World Bank sanctions system is important, both to those working on World Bank projects and to the broader developing world. The World Bank finances tens of billions of dollars in procurement every year, across the globe, and its procurement guidelines -- and its sanctions system -- offer important models for nations and institutions building new systems to fight corruption in procurement.

Corrupt Cities

Corrupt Cities
Author:
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2000
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780821346006

Much of the devastation caused by the recent earthquake in Turkey was the result of widespread corruption between the construction industry and government officials. Corruption is part of everyday public life and we tend to take it for granted. However, preventing corruption helps to raise city revenues, improve service delivery, stimulate public confidence and participation, and win elections. This book is designed to help citizens and public officials diagnose, investigate and prevent various kinds of corrupt and illicit behaviour. It focuses on systematic corruption rather than the free-lance activity of a few law-breakers, and emphasises practical preventive measures rather than purely punitive or moralistic campaigns.

Fighting Fraud and Corruption at the World Bank

Fighting Fraud and Corruption at the World Bank
Author: Stefano Manacorda
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2018-05-04
Genre: Law
ISBN: 3319738240

This book focuses on the World Bank’s sanctions system, which is an innovative instrument of global governance implemented by the leading multilateral development bank in order to impose penalties on legal entities and individuals that are involved in Bank-financed projects. Although similar regimes have also been implemented by other regional multilateral development banks, the World Bank’s legal framework is currently the most comprehensive one. The book offers a rich and detailed analysis of the sanctions system, presenting an in-depth examination of all the phases of its procedure with a special focus on key aspects such as the criteria for assigning liability to legal entities and corporate groups, as well as the World Bank’s jurisdictional reach over non-contractors. The book also explores the compatibility between the legal framework implemented by the Bank and the rule of law, the role of precedents, and the level of due process. It highlights the fact that the sanctions system is currently characterized by a lack of legal guarantees, and that there are compelling reasons for supporting the argument that due process safeguards should be applied to it in their entirety. To that end, the book conducts a thorough analysis of specific procedural aspects such as the right to a hearing, the right to evidence disclosure, the time limit regime, the standard of proof and shift of the burden of proof, the evidential value of a party’s silence, and the consistency and predictability of the World Bank’s sentencing practice. The study is conducted on the basis of a detailed and painstaking examination of the most relevant decisions taken by the Sanctions Board, providing the first-ever commentary on the World Bank’s case law.

Anticorruption in Transition

Anticorruption in Transition
Author:
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 138
Release: 2000-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780821348024

With the increasing recognition across the world of the damaging effects of corruption on economic growth and social stability. This report seeks to unpack the varied practices of corruption to identify and compare different patterns of the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic states, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It then draws out lessons for tailoring anticorruption strategies to address the variation across the region in an effort to target reforms more effectively. The report draws on many sources of ongoing research and lessons of experience, including the World Bank's work in this area. It is intended as a contribution to the growing policy dialogue on developing practical strategies for reducing corruption.

Setting Standards for Communication and Governance

Setting Standards for Communication and Governance
Author: Lawrence J. M. Haas
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 76
Release: 2007
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

This title outlines a number of practical initiatives to strengthen the role of development communication in infrastructure projects. The authors aim to facilitate better quality projects and to build consensus on the type of governance reforms needed to fight corruption, drawing on the experience of development agencies like the World Bank and Transparency International. It starts by characterizing corruption vulnerabilities in infrastructure and proceeds to illustrate where communication has added value on a number of recent projects, both in regard to making the projects more sustainable and by incorporating anti-corruption measures into the project preparation and implementation. It draws on examples of mainly World Bank-supported projects from the road, transport, power, and water sectors in different governance contexts. Five standard-setting initiatives are then outlined, which focus on promoting best practice to better integrate development communication into the project cycles of World Bank-supported infrastructure projects.

Women, Business and the Law 2021

Women, Business and the Law 2021
Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2021-04-05
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1464816530

Women, Business and the Law 2021 is the seventh in a series of annual studies measuring the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity in 190 economies. The project presents eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law as they move through their lives and careers: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension. This year’s report updates all indicators as of October 1, 2020 and builds evidence of the links between legal gender equality and women’s economic inclusion. By examining the economic decisions women make throughout their working lives, as well as the pace of reform over the past 50 years, Women, Business and the Law 2021 makes an important contribution to research and policy discussions about the state of women’s economic empowerment. Prepared during a global pandemic that threatens progress toward gender equality, this edition also includes important findings on government responses to COVID-19 and pilot research related to childcare and women’s access to justice.

Reforming Infrastructure

Reforming Infrastructure
Author: Ioannis Nicolaos Kessides
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2004
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, railways, and water supply, are often vertically and horizontally integrated state monopolies. This results in weak services, especially in developing and transition economies, and for poor people. Common problems include low productivity, high costs, bad quality, insufficient revenue, and investment shortfalls. Many countries over the past two decades have restructured, privatized and regulated their infrastructure. This report identifies the challenges involved in this massive policy redirection. It also assesses the outcomes of these changes, as well as their distributional consequences for poor households and other disadvantaged groups. It recommends directions for future reforms and research to improve infrastructure performance, identifying pricing policies that strike a balance between economic efficiency and social equity, suggesting rules governing access to bottleneck infrastructure facilities, and proposing ways to increase poor people's access to these crucial services.

The OECD Convention on Bribery

The OECD Convention on Bribery
Author: Mark Pieth
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 652
Release: 2007-03-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780521868174

The OECD Convention is the first major international treaty specifically to address 'supply-side bribery' by sanctioning the briber. The OECD Convention establishes an international standard for compliance with anti-corruption rules by 36 countries, including the 30 OECD members and six non-member countries, with the leading OECD exporting countries receiving particular attention. This book is an article-by-article commentary which gives particular attention to the results of the OECD monitoring process as applied to state implementation. Companies in particular are at ever greater risk of legal and 'reputational' damage resulting from failure to comply with the anti-corruption standards set inter alia, by the OECD Convention. This book provides them with comprehensive guidance on the OECD standards. The commentary also constitutes a significant work of comparative criminal law. It is written and edited by persons who include experts involved in development of the Convention standards as well as academics and legal practitioners.