2012年(464)
分类: Delphi
2012-08-04 15:57:43
In terms of enforcement, the number of
contractors being debarred by the World Bank for corrupt practices is rising. As
well as its own work on this, the wider development bank community has had a
more co-ordinated approach to the problem, with an agreement signed in 2010 that
means a contractor debarred by one institution can be made ineligible for work
funded by any of the major multi-lateral banks.
Most of the country’s rare
earth factories have been closed since early August, including those under
government control, to allow for installation of pollution control equipment
that must be in place by Oct. 1, executives and regulators said.
And the
Padma Bridge is not the first case in recent years where the World Bank has
withdrawn funding because of compliance concerns. In February last year it
cancelled a risk guarantee to the Nairobi Toll Road in Kenya because of weak
governance on the project.
The government is determined to clean up the
industry, said Xu Xu, chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals,
Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters, a government-controlled group
that oversees the rare earth industry. “The entrepreneurs don’t care about
environmental problems, don’t care about labor problems and don’t care about
their social responsibility,” he said. “And now we have to educate them.”
But
the Padma Bridge is an altogether higher profile case and one where the smell of
corruption has grown stronger and stronger. Last September the World Bank
referred concerns about employees of SNC Lavalin, which had bid to be the
client's engineer on the scheme, to Canadian authorities. That led last month to
two former company executives appearing in a Toronto court to face charges of
bribery and corruption of a foreign official.
Now that summer has finally
arrived, I've heard from many homeowners over the past week who are now ready to
move forward with their concrete projects, such as patios, driveways, , and
sidewalks.
A common question I hear from people planning projects involving
concrete and whether they should use fibre-reinforced concrete, rebar, wire
mesh, or a combination of these three items to increase the structural strength
of the concrete slab.
The case is yet to reach its conclusion, but with what
the World Bank described as, "Credible evidence corroborated by a variety of
sources," that corruption took place, it was left with few options but to
withdraw its loan. And to give the Bank its due, it first tried to keep the
project with on track through a
different procurement process, but said the government of Bangladesh was not
taking the corruption issues seriously enough.