Watchdog Groups Demand Swift Action by Multilateral Development Banks
(Washington, DC) – In a joint letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow, a coalition of watchdog groups including the Government Accountability Project (GAP) has called for actions to be taken after a Congressional deadline passed yesterday for the World Bank and its four sister organizations to meet accountability and transparency goals.
In the letter, the coalition called on Snow to explain his plan to hold the banks accountable and meet the goals set by Congress. These goals, set in January 2004, are centered around making Bank policies more transparent and accessible, including providing channels for reporting fraud and abuse that protect whistleblowers from retaliation.
“After years of bank employees coming to us with horror stories of reprisal for truth-telling at the banks, it is time we blow a new whistle – the referees’ whistle – ending the game of hide and seek the banks have been playing with taxpayer monies intended to serve the world’s poor,” said Melanie Beth Oliviero, GAP International Program Director.
Besides GAP, the watchdog coalition is made up of the Bank Information Center, Center for Economic Justice, Environmental Defense, Gender Action, Global Exchange, International Rivers Network, Sierra Club, and Sustainable Energy and Economy Network. The bank’s four sister organizations are the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Inter-American Development Bank.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has recently introduced a bill designed to ensure accountability at the banks through Congressional oversight on these and other transparency reforms.