THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) is open to the possibility of including firms linked to the flood control controversy to its debarment list to prevent them from participating in its current or future projects.
In a briefing on Tuesday, ADB Country Director for the Philippines Andrew Jeffries said under its rules, ADB can only debar firms that participated in its projects.
ADB also implements cross-debarment with other multilateral development banks in the world. Under this policy, debarred firms in these institutions are also debarred from participating in their projects in the region.
‘If there is an officially sanctioned government blacklist, we would honor such a list and take that into account. But it would need to be, you know, kind of officially sanctioned and not just a list of firms in the press, so to speak,’ Jeffries told reporters.
Currently, Jeffries said the ADB has implemented strict technical and financial requirements for all contractors bidding for ADB-funded projects.
These include having a proven track record in undertaking a project as well as possessing the technical capability of implementing specific projects.
Jeffries also mentioned that they have a strict oversight when it comes to loan disbursement to make sure that funds are released based on achieved milestones set by ‘legal construction contracts.’
Apart from the procurement of contractors, Jeffries said ADB also has a post-implementation evaluation process that scrutinizes financial statements, final project costs, and the explanation of any cost overruns and changes that were made in the course of project implementation.
‘Regarding our lending, we take the corruption and public financial management very, very seriously. [Public Works and Highways] Secretary Vince Dizon has stopped progress on domestically funded flood protection projects, for example, but he has not stopped foreign funded flood protection projects because of the strict oversight that ourselves and other development partners give,’ Jeffries said.
In 2010, ADB and multilateral development banks such as the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank Group, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Inter-American Development Bank Group entered into a mutual enforcement agreement on debarment decisions.
The agreement covered the harmonization of debarment rules across the multilateral development banks and mutual enforcement of debarment decisions, which required the banks to debar the firms.
In most cases the names of the firms and their violations as well as the period of their debarment are made public by the multilateral development banks.
In a joint statement in 2010, the multilateral development banks stated that the collective enforcement action validated the institutions’ September 17, 2006 commitment as part of the International Financial Institutions Anti-Corruption Task Force.
The 2006 accord committed MDBs to further explore how compliance and enforcement actions taken by one institution could be mutually recognized. Under the 2006 agreement, the institutions agreed to harmonize their definitions of sanctionable practices and to share greater investigative information among the Banks.
ADB’s public debarment list currently includes 14 Filipinos and firms; some are debarred indefinitely while others are debarred ‘until further notice’ for committing various integrity violations. Some of the firms are cross-debarred with the World Bank as a result of the agreement between the multilateral banks.