Integrity Vice Presidency

The world is facing a pivotal moment of urgent global challenges for development. It is critical for the World Bank remain vigilant against corruption in the projects it finances. This report documents how the offices of the World Bank’s sanctions system worked in FY23 to help ensure that the Banks’s funds are used in a transparent and accountable manner and only for their intended purposes.

This report documents how, in a time of increasingly complex global challenges and historic development support by the World Bank, the offices of the sanctions system worked in FY22 to help ensure that the WBG’s funds are used in a transparent and accountable manner and only for their intended purposes.

For more than two decades, the Integrity Vice Presidency has worked to support the World Bank's development mission by detecting, deterring, and preventing fraud and corruption in the activities financed by the institution.

Prepared jointly by the World Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency, Office of Suspension and Debarment, and Sanctions Board, the report illustrates how the institution’s sanctions system has worked in FY21 to meet the challenges and opportunities of an ever-changing global anticorruption landscape.

Despite unprecedented challenges in FY20, the World Bank Sanctions System maintained its anticorruption mission to investigate and adjudicated allegations of fraud and corruption in Bank-financed projects, safeguarding development resources.

The Sanctions System FY19 Annual report details the World Bank’s efforts to investigate and adjudicate allegations of fraud and corruption in Bank projects, safeguarding donor resources for development.

This inaugural report is the result of efforts by INT, OSD and the Sanctions Board to prepare a joint overview of the Bank Sanctions System and its activities over the past year.

INT's FY2017 Annual Report details the World Bank’s ongoing commitment to fighting fraud and corruption, which is an integral part of the World Bank's efforts to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity.

The fight against corruption affects all of us. Corruption is stealing from the poor, and that hurts efforts to promote inclusive growth and shared prosperity.

This year's Integrity Annual Update highlights the World Bank's contributions to an emerging global movement to end corruption.

INT celebrates 15 years of integrity milestones at the World Bank.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and Vice President for Integrity Leonard McCarthy assess the World Bank's efforts in the fight against corruption.

INT focused on finding the right balance among the many competing anti-corruption priorities. In doing so, INT generated better results in its core investigative and sanctioning work while also helping Bank clients see and prevent the dangers of corruption.

As in recent years, the successes INT had in FY11 have benefited from partnerships at varying levels of government and society, and has coincided with demand from the Bank's client countries for anti-corruption support.

INT managed a case load that spread across 84 countries and 260 projects, all while closing investigations well under targeted timeframes. As a result of INT's investigative work, the Bank debarred 45 firms, individuals and non-governmental organizations in FY10.

Stakeholders around the world - including our member countries and donors - are looking to the World Bank for leadership in responsible business practices. They expect us to uphold a high standard of integrity in all aspects of our work.

Milestones from FY08 include the implementation of the Volcker Review Panel recommendations for INT; the completion of INT's largest undertaking, the India health sector Detailed Implementation Review; the public release of redacted INT investigative reports; and the arrival of INT's first Vice President.

Among the success stories of FY07 is the support INT provided to the development of a risk assessment and mitigation plan for the Colombia La Guajira Water Project. The Task Team had developed a rigorous governance risk assessment and mitigation plan that received strong and explicit support by a wide range of Board members.

One overarching finding from the investigations into fraud and corruption in Bank-financed projects is that the schemes devised by the corrupt actors are broadly similar whether in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America or the Middle East.

Since its establishment in April 2001, the Department of Institutional Integrity (INT) has handled over 1,300 cases and currently has over 300 active cases. The Bank now has a budget of US$10 million for work in this area, making it by far the leader in resources committed among international institutions in the fight against fraud and corruption.