The World Bank has told Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project
\n(SERAP) that it \u201ccannot locate any additional information on the projects
\nexecuted with recovered stolen public funds by the late General Sani
\nAbacha.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the response sent last week to SERAP, the World Bank Access
\nto Information Appeal Committee said, \u201cIn response to your request under
\ncase number AI4288 (related to your initial request case number AI3982),
\nwe wish to inform you that we have thoroughly searched our records and
\ndatabases but have not been able to locate any additional information that
\nis responsive to your request beyond what we have already shared with you.
\nTherefore, we are unable to fulfill your request.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would be recalled that the World Bank last year asked for more time to
\nrelease details on the spending of recovered loot by Abacha. This followed
\nthe bank\u2019s decision to refer \u201cportion of appeal by SERAP to the Bank
\nArchives Unit for processing for public access. The Bank\u2019s request for
\nmore time followed the appeal SERAP lodged with the Bank on 5 February
\n2016 on the ground that the Bank\u2019s decision on its initial request did not
\nreveal \u201cimportant portions of the information requested on how Abacha loot
\nwas spent.\u201d<\/p>\n
But dissatisfied with the failure of the Bank to locate additional
\ninformation, SERAP has now sent an open letter to the Bank\u2019s president Dr.
\nJim Yong Kim requesting him to use his \u201cgood offices and leadership
\nposition to urgently address the public perception that the World Bank is
\nseeking to distance itself from responsibility over alleged mismanagement
\nin the spending of recovered Abacha loot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Specifically, the organization asked Dr Kim to \u201cestablish a Special
\nInspection Panel on Nigeria to visit locations across the country to
\nverify whether or not the projects reportedly executed by the Nigerian
\ngovernment with the funds were actually executed.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the letter dated 28 April 2017 and signed by SERAP deputy director
\nTimothy Adewale the organization expressed concern that \u201cthe apparent lack
\nof transparency and accountability in the spending of recovered Abacha
\nloot and the fact that the Bank has now come to the conclusion that it has
\nno more information to provide on the status of the projects reportedly
\nexecuted with the funds have impacted negatively on the communities across
\nthe country who are victims of corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organization argued that, \u201cUsing technicalities under the Bank\u2019s
\nAccess to Information Policy to refuse to answer outstanding questions on
\nthe projects reportedly executed with recovered Abacha loot would leave
\ncommunities across the country that have been negatively affected by the
\nmismanagement of the funds without any effective remedies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter read in part: \u201cGetting to the root of how Abacha loot was spent
\nwould demonstrate that the World Bank is willing to put people first in
\nthe implementation of its development and governance policies and
\nmandates, as well as remove any suspicion of the Bank\u2019s complicity in the
\nalleged mismanagement of the recovered public funds.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere would be an acute risk that the Bank\u2019s on-going and future role in
\nsupervising and monitoring of spending of recovered stolen public funds
\nwould be questioned and may be legally challenged for lacking transparency
\nand accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSERAP believes that given its supervisory and monitoring roles in the
\nspending of the recovered Abacha loot, the World Bank ought to do much
\nmore to clarify outstanding questions regarding the status of projects
\nreportedly executed with the funds. It is vital that the Bank is able to
\nshow that it is up to the task whenever it takes up the responsibility of
\nsupervising and monitoring the spending of recovered funds in Nigeria and
\nelsewhere across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSERAP also believes that the Bank ought to have classified the execution
\nof the projects by the Nigerian government as high or substantial risk
\nespecially given the prevalent of corruption in the country, and exercised
\ndue diligence including by keeping proper records on the conditions of
\nprojects supervised and monitored by the Bank.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAny failure to take decisive action to uncover what exactly happened to
\nthe projects reportedly executed by recovered Abacha loot which the Bank
\nvolunteered to supervise and monitor would shed a bad light on the World
\nBank, undermine its goal of alleviating poverty, and may mark the demise
\nof transparency and accountability at the Bank.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposed inspection panel on Nigeria should be able to ask
\nappropriate questions from the authorities and engage with the communities
\naffected by the alleged mismanagement of the recovered funds. This process
\nwould help to enhance compliance on the ground with the Bank\u2019s safeguards
\nand thereby bolstering the Bank\u2019s accountability under its policies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe panel should also undertake a full investigation into whether there
\nhas been a serious failure by the Bank supervisors and monitors to observe
\nits operational policies and procedures regarding the execution of
\nprojects with recovered Abacha loot; the role played by any government
\nofficials including in the Ministry of Finance, and the material adverse
\neffects on communities across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunities that have been affected by the apparent mismanagement of
\nrecovered Abacha loot should receive from the Bank proper and adequate
\ncompensation as well as community-based development benefits such as
\neducation, sanitation systems, health care, and community services
\n(particularly for the elderly, mothers and children), access to clean
\nwater, access to livelihoods, and other locally determined remedial
\nmeasures. SERAP considers this is a basic corrective justice, and it is
\nthe bare minimum required in the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSERAP also urges you to adopt and implement a Transparency Charter with
\nrespect to your ongoing and future supervisory and monitoring duties on
\nthe spending of recently recovered Abacha loot in order to ensure the
\nintegrity of the process of project execution. SERAP believes that the
\nBank\u2019s goals of promoting transparency, accountability and the rule of law
\nin countries would gain more credibility and respect if the Bank can lead
\nby example particularly in its supervisory and monitoring role of spending
\nof recovered stolen public funds.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSERAP hopes that the World Bank would act as requested. However, take
\nnotice that should the Bank fail and\/or neglect to take the steps
\nrecommended, the Registered Trustees of SERAP would pursue appropriate
\ninternational and national legal actions to ensure transparency and
\naccountability in this matter.\u201d SERAP said that the proposed panel should
\nfind out:
\n1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Why 2 rather 8 health centers were completed as disclosed by the
\nreport produced by the Bank. The location of the 2 completed projects
\nshould be disclosed. If it is true that 174 health centers were built with
\nthe Abacha loot and commissioned by the government and to disclose the
\nlocations of the centers;
\n2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If payments were made to contractors who reportedly executed 10 of
\nthe 18 power projects pertained to physical electrical installations, and
\ndisclose the names of those contractors. If it is true that recovered
\nAbacha funds were used to provide additional financing for the Universal
\nBasic Education (UBE) program in the amount of NGN24.25 bn to support
\nbasic education throughout the country, and to disclose the number and
\nlocation of schools which benefited from these funds at the time;
\n3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If it is true that 13 road projects were completed including 3 of
\nthe largest road and bridge projects in each geo-political zone with the
\nfunds, and to disclose the locations of individual projects, including the
\nlargest roads and bridges completed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The World Bank has told Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) that it \u201ccannot locate any additional information on the projects executed with recovered stolen public funds by the late…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n