The Development Committee may have reached unanimous agreement on a governance and anti-corruption agenda for the World Bank at its meeting in Singapore, but that is by no means the end of the debate.
Committee chair Alberto Carrasquilla told Emerging Markets on Tuesday that opinion was divided in the committee – which has asked that the governance issue be discussed again at its spring meetings in April 2007. The committee will hold “continuous consultations” with the board, the chairman said.
The meeting was “constructive” and included a lively debate on governance, Carrasquilla said. That debate revealed a fairly even split between “two forces” – those who favour implementation of the governance programme recommendations, and others who call for a system of checks and balances in the application of governance policy.
Carrasquilla, Colombia's Minister of Finance and Public Credit, said the ministers advocating checks and balances had expressed concern that the governance mandate is being imposed unilaterally.
The Development Committee endorsed a strengthening of the Bank’s engagement with countries on governance and corruption, and implementing country assistance strategies to address corruption issues in a systematic and consistent way, including the possible restriction or suspension of Bank operations if there are governance concerns.
Bank projects will provide for the formation of anticorruption teams, revamped project design to advance anti-corruption, and tighter supervision and monitoring. The Bank will broaden its anti-corruption mandate beyond working with national governments and will eventually co-ordinate the campaign with other multilateral institutions, bilateral development agencies, civil society and financial and private sectors, the committee agreed.