Corruption has no room in development. This is what the African Development Bank’s board of directors hinted Thursday (July 5) after approving a proposal to strengthen the bank’s sanctions process.
The approved proposal includes the establishment of a sanctions office and appeal board. The board also approved expanding AfDB’s sanctions to include reprimands, conditional nondebarments, debarments, restitutions and remedies. The bank’s integrity and anti-corruption department will be restructured as well.
The move empowers the bank to implement the cross-debarment agreement it signed in April 2010 with four development finance institutions. It comes two days after the World Bank, one of the signatories to the agreement, debarred two Oxford University Press units operating in Africa: Oxford University Press East Africa Ltd. and Oxford University Press Tanzania.
Also approved Thursday was the creation of a multidonor trust fund for countries in transition. The fund’s initial focus will be countries in North Africa.
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