ADB calls Samut Prakarn project an “error”
The cover story of the July 28 edition of the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review covers corruption in projects funded by Multilateral Development Banks. Referencing the US Senate Hearings on “MDBs and Corruption”, the article points to US Senator Richard Lugar’s statement that over $100 billion may have been lost to corruption through World Bank lending in the past 60 years. The World Bank rejects this assertion as “frivolous” but has not put forward its own estimates of monies lost to corruption. Critics argue that the MDBs have a legal responsibility to ensure its lending is used for intended purposes. The article also highlights the ADB’s problems with corruption in the Samut Prakarn Wastewater Management Project in Thailand. Saying that the ADB “erred badly” in Samut Prakarn, the article quotes extensively from the “Zero Tolerance” report prepared by Bank Information Center and Terra-Thailand.
Stealing from the Poor, by Murray Hiebert and John McBeth, Far Eastern Economic Review, July 29, 2004 (FEER website)Thai Project Yields Graft and New Policies, by Christopher Gay, Far Eastern Economic Review, July 29, 2004 (FEER website)