In 2007 the World Bank investigated allegations made by a British engineer, Bruce Tasker, then working for an Armenian parliamentary commission, that a $30 million water utility project in Yerevan, financed by the World Bank, was riddled with irregularities. The investigation didn’t substantiate the claims.
In 2010 allegations of irregularities in a World Bank-financed Second Judicial Reform project ($20 million) designed to improve efficiency and transparency of judicial operations and services triggered an INT investigation: the project had received only one bid from a joint venture and it was proved that its reference of good financial standing issued by an international bank was fake.
In October 2015 an INT investigation revealed that some used equipment had been sold to the World Bank-financed Second Health System Modernization Project ($41 million). Two companies had been bidding for the procurement contract. Only one won the contract but both companies had submitted false documents in their bids and they later colluded to sell the used equipment to the project.
Urban Transportation Infrastructure Project ($115 million) halted in 1996 after an investigation found two bank employees and a Kenyan official involved in bribery and bid-rigging with contractors (1996)
Kenya KHADREP HIV/Aids Disaster Response project (2000-2005): multiple frauds and $56.6 million disbursed.
Free Primary Education Support Project FPESP (2003-2007): multiple frauds and $54.6 million disbursed.
Kenya Education Support Program (2006) of $80 million suspended in 2009: $57 million disbursed.
Western Kenya Community-Driven Development and Flood Mitigation Project (WKCDD) $87 million (2007): $27 million disbursed when fraud was uncovered in 2009.
Kenya Arid Lands (1996-2010), a $140 million dollar project in Kenya’s arid and semi arid lands closed in December 2010 after a partial audit found 62% of the expenses audited during 2007-2008 suspected of being fraudulent or questionable. Two later projects were cancelled and at least 54% of audited ineligible funds paid back by the Kenyan taxpayers.
A World Bank employee, left the Bank after an investigation in 2003 into a bribe in connection with the award of a contract related to AGETIF, a public works and employment service program in West Africa.
In 2005 an investigation revealed systemic fraud and corruption in a large-scale health project. President Wolfowitz decided to hold up $800 million in new health funding for India because of allegations that politicians profited from the project and harmful drugs were given to nursing mothers.
In 2007 a review by the Bank of five of its projects found indicators of fraud and corruption (procurement, bid rigging, bribery, under delivery of services…)
In 2013 INT looked into allegations that the company CES (India) defrauded the World Bank- financed Lucknow-Muzaffarpur National Highway Project and received bribes from construction contractors on the Project. Forged and falsified invoices were used to support advance claims for payment under the contracts, in part in exchange for receiving improper cash payments. CES, the supervision consultant for these contracts, was debarred for five years.
In 2002 Alstom made an “improper payment” of $146,000 to a company controlled by a former senior government official for consultancy on the Zambia Power Rehabilitation Project. The French company agreed to a settlement with the World Bank: two of its subsidiaries were debarred for 21 months and had to pay a restitution fee totaling $9.5 million.
Lesotho Highlands Water Project: several western companies involved in a bribery scheme featuring payments to various Swiss bank accounts to obtain millions of dollars in contracts. The project was partially funded by the World Bank and other multilateral financial organizations.
Rural Investment Project ($62.8 million): 15 people convicted in Bolivia in 2004 for kickbacks and fraudulent invoices related to contracts on a $62.8 million project. INT had found evidence of fraudulent and corrupt practices, and payment for work not completed or never done.
61 Bolivian firms or individuals barred from doing business with the Bank were on the sanctions list in 2015.
In 2002, the Bank discovered that 30 % of its funds in the $76 million urban development program in Sulawasi had been stolen. This program was cancelled.
In 2006-2007, the Bank cancelled three infrastructure projects and demanded the return of $4.7 million already spent over alleged bribery in the hiring of consultants.
More than 80 Indonesian firms and individuals barred from doing business with the Bank were on the sanctions list in 2015.
Road Repair Contracts project: World Bank suspended $220 million in funding for a road project after kickbacks, bid-collusion, and other problems were found in $35 million worth of contracts to repair roads devastated by floods in 2003.
Padma Bridge: the World Bank cancelled its financing ($1.2 billion) of the project on “credible evidence” of high-level corruption among Bangladesh officials involved with the bridge in 2012. SNC-Lavalin, a Canadian engineering company, is banned for ten years from doing business with the World Bank for its role in the scandal.
24 Bangladeshi firms or individuals barred from doing business with the Bank were on the sanctions list in 2015.
Misconduct related to procurement (multiple bids in the same project by entities from the same group) in three World Bank-funded projects in the areas of water conservation, earthquake recovery and flood management, during the period from 2010 to 2013, by four subsidiaries of China Energy Engineering Corporation. In May 2015 the Bank announced a settlement.
58 Chinese firms and individuals barred from doing business with the Bank were on the sanctions list in 2015.
In 2007 the Bank investigated an Urban transport project in Moscow where the German company, Siemens, was found involved in bribery. Siemens settled with the World Bank, agreed on a two years ban from doing business with the Bank, and paid a $100 million fee to help fund anti-corruption efforts.
Zoomlion, a Ghanaian company, paid bribes to facilitate contract execution and processing of invoices of the World Bank-funded Emergency Monrovia Urban Sanitation Project in Liberia. Zoomlion acknowledged the misconduct and was debarred for two years in 2013.
Five government officials sacked in 2009 for embezzling public funds and corruption related to the World Bank-funded Kigali-Bugesera road project and payment to two companies (Strabag and Studi International) involved in the project
Alcatel-Lucent Egypt for Telecommunications and Alcatel-Lucent Italia failed to disclose two agents hired on their behalf to help them win a bid for a contract in 2006 under the $65 million World Bank-financed Emergency Private Sector Development Project
In 2013-2014 an investigation into a World Bank-financed Iraq Water project leads INT to refer the cases to US, UK, Iraqi, and French authorities for fraudulent and corrupt practices. France has started an investigation
In 2014 a company, Development and Relief Corporation International B.V. (Netherlands), is found to have paid an agent a 15 % commission on two contracts intended as bribe payments in exchange for contract awards in relation to the Iraqi Emergency Health Rehabilitation and Iraq Emergency Disabilities Projects
Louis Berger International, a major US engineering and consultancy firm, is convicted of having made corrupt payments to government officials under two World Bank-financed projects in Vietnam: the Third Rural Transport and Da Nang Priority Infrastructure Investment Projects. It is debarred for one year in 2015.
In April 2016, the World Bank announced the debarments of six companies for one year in relation to misconduct in an environmental project. The companies had submitted fraudulent
In March 2016 the World Bank debarred Schneider Electric Pakistan Pvt. Limited for a period of 25 months for engaging in collusive practices and being a member of a cartel of switchgear manufacturers under the Bank-financed Pakistan Electricity Distribution and Transmission Improvement Project.
In 2014 a World Bank investigation which spanned five countries in Africa and Europe, revealed evidence of kickback payments of $172,700 by a Dutch national and a Norwegian joint venture partner. They were both engaged in corrupt and fraudulent practices relating to the World Bank- financed Dar Salaam Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Tanzania.
The Development Marketplace for the African Diaspora in Europe Project (D-MADE) aimed to boost entrepreneurial diaspora activities and create employment opportunities for the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa through a grant program started in 2008. It was closed in 2011. It was financed by a trust fund (supported by the Belgian Development Cooperation, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the French Development Agency), and administered by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). Three years into the program it appeared the company awarded the project - and the full grant award of approximately $50,000 - couldn’t account for the funds which had been stolen by individuals supposed to work on the project. INT investigated but couldn’t prove the fraudulent intent and the company was not debarred.
In 2008-2009 the Bank debarred eight companies after a three year investigation, spanning six countries, into the World Bank-financed National Road Improvement and Management Program -Phase 1 ($150 million). INT found evidence of collusion in the tenders with total bid prices that consistently exceeded the cost estimate by 20% or more, as well as indicators of corruption. A well-organized cartel managed by contractors influenced contract awards and set inflated bid prices on projects. Participating politicians and government officials demanded large percentages of the contract price as kickbacks.
In 2005-2006 INT investigated allegations of contract steering, solicitation of kickbacks, and mismanagement of funds related to Bank financed projects by the Bureau Central de Coordination - a procurement and project implementation agency. Kickbacks amounted to between 20% and 30% of contract value.
Emergency Demobilization and Reintegration Project: the purpose of this $200 million program was to finance the demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants to civilian life. An INT investigation revealed corrupt payment to project officials for the reward of contracts and the billing of “ghost employees”.
Emergency Social Action Program: an INT investigation into this partially Bank-funded project ($50 million), designed to improve access to social and economic services for the poor, found evidence of corrupt payment to project officials, irregularities in procurement, indicators of collusion and bid manipulation. A forensic audit also found evidence that the project made ineligible expenditures.
Multisectoral HIV/Aids project: in 2010 INT found evidence of fraud related to the procurement of this $100 million World Bank financed program.
From 1997 to 1999 two officials of the World Bank in Washington committed bribery in several transactions involving a fund of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency Fund: the Consultant Trust Funds. The Kickbacks were related to the awards of contracts in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sri-Lanka.