ADB waters down plans to amend mistakes in Cambodia
Newly approved plans by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to fix mistakes it made on a $143 million railway project appear to water down recommendations proposed by the Bank’s own review panel, and could impose the costs of the plan on the very families who lost land to the project. The ADB’s independent compliance review panel added the recommendations to a report looking into a Bank project to rehabilitate Cambodia’s dilapidated railway system. The report said the Bank was to blame for failing to prevent thousands of families from ending up worse off after they were forced to give up all or part of their land. The Bank’s board of directors approved the report—but only after watering down the recommendations—late last month, and released its decision on Friday. Some recommendations were watered down even before reaching the board, according to an early draft document. .. The approved recommendations also call on the ADB to help the families with the new loans they were forced to take on because of the Bank’s mistakes. But rather than paying off those loans, the ADB would only offer to replace them with yet another loan at a lower interest rate. … David Pred of the NGO Inclusive Development International, which co-filed the complaint that triggered the report, called the use of new loans to fix its mistakes “obscene.” “There is a massive disconnect between the ADB’s official acknowledgment that people have suffered serious harm as a result of ADB’s failure to follow its policies, after years of denial, and the board now demanding that the Cambodian government pay to bring the project into compliance,” he said. … In 2011 the World Bank admitted that its own mistakes on a land titling project in Cambodia hurt thousands of families it was supposed to aid, but later said it could do little to help because the government would not cooperate. Instead of cooperating, the government watched the World Bank freeze all new lending to the country. …
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/adb-waters-down-plans-to-amend-mistakes-in-cambodia-51763/
