No fund for Padma till conditions met: WB president

'We've zero tolerance for graft'

 

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim has said the lending agency cannot consider financing the Padma bridge project until certain conditions are met to heighten oversight in the project and give assurance that a complete and fair criminal investigation is under way.
"I say this knowing how much this bridge means to the people and economy in the southwest of Bangladesh. It is a steel lifeline linking them to opportunity," he said.

Kim was delivering his speech, ‘Anti-corruption Efforts in a Global Environment: A Commitment to Act’, at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies at Washington DC on Wednesday.
The WB president, however, said sometimes things go wrong and then the bank needs to stand firm. “This is what happened in the case of the Padma bridge project where insufficient response by the authorities to the evidence of corruption at the time made us terminate a $1.2 billion credit in June last year,”
He further said that he has no intention to preempt things, as legal and other processes have to run their course.
Jim said that the WB has remained engaged in Bangladesh and its current portfolio includes over 30 projects with commitments of about $4.3 billion. “Our lack of tolerance for corruption does not mean that we ignore the larger development picture.”