The Bank's consultants and contractors at an integrity and anti-corruption workshop at the Bank's office in Pretoria 13.08.2019

The African Development Bank's Office of Integrity and Anti-corruption (PIAC) held a two-day session on 12-13 August 2019 with staff, consultants and contractors to raise awareness on the Bank's rules and regulations regarding integrity and anti-corruption.

The first day brought together staff and consultants based in the Southern Africa regional office in Pretoria and country offices, while the second day was designed for consultants and contractors working with the Bank.

The sessions outlined the overall multilateral development banks' (MDBs) general approach, while highlighting the Bank's own work on integrity and anti-corruption, in compliance with existing policies, procedures, laws and regulations.

The mandate of the Bank's Office of Integrity and Anti-corruption is to carry out investigative and preventative activities such as integrity due diligence, staff capacity building, and countering various forms of illicit financial flows, integrity project reviews, and monitoring implementation of integrity compliance programmes of sanctioned entities. It also investigates staff misconduct and the five sanctionable practices (i.e. fraud, corruption, collusion, coercive and obstructive practices).

"It is important that all staff, consultants and contractors familiarise themselves with the tools and procedures in place to ensure integrity and abide by the guiding principles during the implementation of Bank work. These sessions show the need for all to be involved in integrity compliance for effective business delivery," said Florence Freda Dennis, Division Manager, to participants.

On the first day, staff and in-house consultants were acquainted with the Bank's online tools to conduct background checks on the status of companies across several Multilateral Development Banks. These tools are the Integrity Risk Tool (IRT) that displays the status of companies and individuals barred from doing business with the banks, as well as the Politically Exposed Persons (PepCheck) Tool. The five MDBs cooperating on enforcement of debarment decisions are the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank.

Consultants and contractors were also introduced to the Bank's preventative, investigative and sanctions procedures once allegations are made and in conformity with the best practices in the MDBs' policies and procedures. The final session guided consultants and contractors to sources of information available on the Bank's website on the best integrity and anti-corruption practices.