No Information on World Bank Bribery Allegations in Cambodia
More than a week after the World Bank blacklisted a Canadian construction firm over bribes allegedly paid in Cambodia and Bangladesh, it was still unclear Thursday whether the government, or the national anticorruption body, are investigating the allegations. SNC-Lavalin Inc. was banned from World Bank contracts for 10 years after a unit at the bank that investigates corruption found misconduct relating to a bridge building project in Bangladesh and a $5 million contract to build a national control center for state-owned power company Electricite du Cambodge. … The contract was part of the World Bank’s Rural Electrification and Transmission project, which was overseen by the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy. Despite the World Bank announcing the Montreal based firm’s debarment on April 17, little has been said about the bribery allegation in Cambodia . … Preap Kok, executive director of Transparency International Cambodia, said that the ACU [Anti-Corruption Unit], though it has the authority to do so, tends not to investigate cases unless a complaint is filed directly with it, even if allegations are published in the media. … In September, the ACU said it had investigated about 30 percent of the 800 or so cases it had received in the first nine months of 2012. …
