Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is scheduled to testify before the House Committee on Appropriations (State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee) next Tuesday, March 27. His testimony is likely to focus on the proposed General Capital Increases at the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and whether or not the MDBs have met certain reform requirements, including the implementation of best practice whistleblower protections.

The U.S. Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012 requires the Treasury Department to report that the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank  are making "substantial progress" toward "implementing" best practices for the protection of whistleblowers from retaliation before the U.S. can contribute tens of billions of dollars in cold cash and guarantees to bailout these institutions.

A year ago, when Geithner testified before Congress, he promised that the Treasury Department would exact from the MDBs the “best standards for internal controls that we can” before contributing tens of billions of dollars in new funding to these institutions. But it appears that he has not lived up to this promise. GAP has received a copy of Treasury’s report to Congress and found it to be non-responsive to the requirement in the legislation that the MDBs make “substantial progress” toward “implementation” of whistleblower protection policies. The report not only confines the analysis to what the policies say rather than how they are implemented, it also misrepresents the policies’ actual content.

The taxpayers footing the bill for this bailout deserve better.

If you agree, please sign our petition to demand the Treasury Department to conduct – and release for public comment – a credible review that details the implementation of the MDB's whistleblower protections!

So ethics guru Bernardo Kliksberg is back in the news. On March 1, FOX News' George Russell published a detailed piece about Kliksberg’s peculiar departure from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in January 2007, just before the Social Capital and Ethics Initiative “coordinated” by him ran completely out of steam. The Norwegian and Canadian Governments funded this effort, and a whistleblower at the IDB disclosed repeated and costly ethical violations by Kliksberg, using the funds of the initiative.

It seems that Kliksberg, the author of More Ethics, More Development, among other treatises, is himself guilty of diverting funds from the IDB’s ethics initiative. 

This takes, in the immortal words of Sarah Palin, cojones. 

Russell’s piece reports that the IDB then repaid the Norwegian and Canadian Trust Fund for the amount Kliksberg demonstrably diverted: $109,000, equivalent to half of the funds available for the initiative in 2006. After that, the cone of silence descended around the Kliksberg affair, and it remains concealed beneath highly improbable and contradictory official statements. It only came to light because the whistleblower brought suit in the IDB’s internal tribunal. She protested the loss of her job, which the IDB tried to represent as the inevitable consequence of the demise of the Ethics Initiative.

According to reliable (whistleblowing) sources, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has a long history of shielding major Argentine firms from public exposure for corrupt or fraudulent practices in Bank operations.

Take the case of a Pricewaterhouse Coopers chapters in the US (PwC US) and Argentina (PwC AE SRL). Last summer, the IDB's internal Administrative Tribunal summoned management to a public hearing to account for the way in which OII and senior Bank officials concealed the nasty aftermath of a contract awarded to the firm for a project called "IT Roadmap." The ruling issued found that the Bank dealt with the staff member involved in an irregular and draconian fashion. Additional information shows the way in which the Bank handled PwC was procedurally improper and extraordinarily forgiving.

Under the ethics procedures at the IDB, when an allegation of fraud or corruption involves both a staff member and an external party, OII is to investigate the external party first. Only upon conclusion of that part of the investigation are the remaining allegations to be referred to the Ethics Office (Code of Ethics and Procedures, 302.5). In this case, OII, under Steven Zimmerman, undertook the investigative process in reverse. Fernando Fernandez, the staff member, was investigated first and summarily terminated without due process. Subsequently, PwC chapters in both the US and Argentina negotiated an agreement to pay the Bank $2 million in exchange for the Bank's silence about the firm's role in the affair.

Two days ago, ABC España reported that the Spanish Tribunal de Cuentas (Spain's equivalent of the GAO) will audit the General Fund for Spanish Cooperation (FGE) at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) here in Washington, DC. While ABC made clear that the Spanish Tribunal de Cuentas will audit many of the investments made by the €3 billion Fund in projects managed by intergovernmental organizations, the Auditors Tribunal will specifically focus its investigation on allegations of mismanagement and illegalities in the €50 million Fund at the IDB.

A group of whistleblowers at the IDB first raised questions about FGE management in October 2011, and the allegations were published at the time in ABC. In January 2012, these whistleblowers contacted GAP with their concerns, after the IDB ignored their allegations for nearly four months.

GAP wrote to Luís Moreno, President of the IDB on January 26, 2012, and copied the communication to María Pérez-Ribes, who represents the Government of Spain on the IDB Board of Directors. To date, neither official has responded. One hopes that both of them will be more forthcoming with the Spanish auditors.

Spanish funds dedicated to international development projects through the UN Development Program (UNDP) will also be investigated, an exercise that should expose the chequered career of Bernardo Kliksberg. Kliksberg manages Spain's UNDP Trust Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean, to which the Spanish Government made contributions worth $62 million between 2007 and 2009. He continues to manage these funds despite the fact that he was obliged to leave the IDB after he diverted funds from the Trust Fund established at the Bank by the Governments of Norway and Canada. Ironically, this particular fund was to promote ethics and good governance in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Bea Edwards is Executive Director and International Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.

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Traducción al español del artículo "Spanish Tribunal will Audit IDB Trust Fund after Allegations of Illegalities and Impropriety", publicado el 8 de febrero de 2012 en la web de Government Accountability Project (GAP), organización sin ánimo de lucro con sede en Washington DC, EE.UU.

El texto del artículo en inglés, disponible en el sitio web de Government Accountability Project (GAP), ofrece vínculos a todos los documentos citados, para su visión y descarga: Artículo de ABC de 6 febrero 2012; Artículo de ABC de 2 octubre 2011; Primer artículo de GAP sobre conflictos de interés en el Fondo General de Cooperación de España (FGE) en el BID; Carta de la Directora de GAP dirigida al Presidente del BID y a la Representante del Gobierno de España en el BID; y Página-web del Fondo España-PNUD para Latinoamérica y el Caribe.

TRIBUNAL ESPAÑOL FISCALIZARÁ UN FONDO FIDUCIARIO EN EL BID DESPUÉS DE DENUNCIAS DE ILEGALIDADES E IRREGULARIDADES

Por Bea Edwards, 8 de Febrero de 2012

Hace dos días, el periódico ABC, en su edición escrita de España, informó que el Tribunal de Cuentas (el equivalente español del norteamericano GAO) fiscalizará el Fondo General de Cooperación de España (FGE) en el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) con sede en Washington DC. Si bien ABC dejó claro que el Tribunal de Cuentas fiscalizará muchas de las contribuciones realizadas [por el Gobierno Socialista español] a organismos internacionales de cooperación al desarrollo por valor de 3.000 millones de Euros, los auditores del Tribunal de Cuentas prestarán especial atención a las denuncias de ilegalidades e irregularidades en la gestión de los 50 millones de euros del FGE en el BID.

Un grupo de denunciantes anónimos de buena fe plantearon por primera vez sus dudas sobre la gestión del FGE en Octubre de 2011, y las denuncias fueron publicadas entonces por el diario ABC. En enero de 2012, estos denunciantes transmitieron sus preocupaciones al Government Accountability Project (GAP), después de que el BID ignorara sus denuncias [publicadas por ABC] durante casi cuatro meses.

GAP dirigió una carta a Luis [Alberto] Moreno, Presidente del BID, el 26 de enero de 2012, con copia a María Pérez Ribes, la representante del Gobierno de España en el Directorio Ejecutivo del BID. A fecha de hoy, ninguno de los dos ha respondido. Cabe esperar que ambos se muestren más colaboradores con los auditores españoles.

Las contribuciones no reembolsables de España a proyectos de cooperación al desarrollo en el Programa de Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD) también serán investigadas [por el Tribunal de Cuentas] y esta fiscalización debería poner de manifiesto los altibajos de la carrera de Bernardo Kliksberg. Kliksberg dirige el "Fondo España-PNUD para Latinoamérica y el Caribe", al cual el Gobierno español transfirió $62 millones entre 2007 y 2009. Kliksberg continua gestionando estos recursos públicos de España a pesar de que previamente se vio obligado a abandonar su trabajo en el BID tras quedar demostrado que malversó dineros públicos de un Fondo Fiduciario creado por los Gobiernos de Noruega y Canadá. Irónicamente, un fondo cuyo objetivo era promover la ética y la buena gobernanza en Latinoamérica y el Caribe.

Beatrice Edwards es la Directora Ejecutiva y Directora del Área Internacional de The Government Accountability Project (GAP), organización sin animo de lucro y líder en Estados Unidos dedicada a promover la ética y la responsabilidad (accountability) del gobierno norteamericano, de las corporaciones norteamericanas, y de los principales organismos internacionales de cooperación al desarrollo http://www.whistleblower.org/program-areas

World Bank headquarters in Washington, DCA provision in the recently passed U.S. Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012 requires three Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to make "substantial progress" toward "implementing" best practices for the protection of whistleblowers from retaliation before the U.S. can contribute tens of billions of dollars in cold cash and guarantees to these institutions' general capital increases. This is a major victory for MDB whistleblowers and those who wish to see these organizations operate in a more accountable manner.

According to Section 7082 of H.R. 2055, which was signed into law by President Obama on December 23, prior to the U.S. Congress disbursing funds for the general capital increases of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), the African Development Bank (AfDB) or the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Secretary of the Treasury must report that each institution is, among other things, making "substantial progress" toward:

implementing best practices for the protection of whistleblowers from retaliation, including best practices for legal burdens of proof, access to independent adjudicative bodies, results that eliminate the effects of retaliation, and statutes of limitation for reporting retaliation.

Prior U.S. legislation related to MDBs only required the U.S. Executive Director at each institution to advocate for best practice whistleblower protections. The new law requires the MDBs – as well as United Nations agencies – to go a step further and actually implement such policies in order to receive a full financial contribution from the United States. (Incidentally, the law also requires the Secretary of the Treasury to advocate for the implementation of best practice whistleblower protections at the International Monetary Fund, although no funding restrictions are attached to that provision.)

Inter-American Development BankAnonymous whistleblowers report that the management of the Framework General Fund for Spanish Cooperation (FGE) at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is weakened by a conflict of interest. The whistleblowers produced evidence, some of which was published in the Spanish press four months ago, that Carmen Albertos, the IDB staff member who administers the fund, also serves on the Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of Spain (PSOE) in Washington. 

The IDB Code of Ethics is clear on this point:

[T]o preserve the independence and impartiality of their status as international civil servants and to avoid interference and conflict with their duties, they {IDB staff members] may not participate in partisan political activities that imply candidacy, acceptance of or appointment to public office or to a political party position. Accordingly, they must resign their position in the Bank prior to participating in such activities or accepting such offices, or becoming candidates for such positions (III.B.2).

Despite the fact that the details of the conflict of interest appeared in the newspaper ABC on October 2, 2011, IDB management has not addressed the issue. Moreover, the sweeping authority granted to Ms. Albertos, as trust fund manager, aggravates the problem: she alone can approve technical cooperation projects valued at up to €100,000.

The Inter-American Development Bank.It seems that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is holding an accountability gala (invitation here) this week called "Leveraging Transparency and Integrity as a Condition to Sustainable Development." There will be a transparency carnival conducted by The Institutional Capacity and Finance Sector, and a special star turn by IDB Bank President Luis Alberto Moreno.

The Bank has been working hard on transparency and integrity because it needs a bailout from the US Congress, which has been asking intrusive questions about the IDB's appalling record on aid effectiveness and anti-corruption. Specific Congressional offices have even been prying into the IDB's habit of retaliating against whistleblowers and using internal "oversight" offices to do it. As Representative Charles Dent (R-Pa) put it during a hearing this past spring (minutes 29 – 31):

As you know, these banks need reforms in many areas, but specifically in their internal judicial systems, which are not always as impartial when investigating charges of fraud, corruption and waste by various whistleblowers, and there was an example at the Inter-American Development Bank that, according to the press, immediately dismissed a contract officer in Haiti when that person raised the issue of fraud in the IDB's Haiti reconstruction contracts.