014. World Bank Postpones Funding Indian Health Programme On Corruption Claims

World Bank postpones funding Indian health programme on corruption claims

By Yahoo News

 

April 13, 2006

The World Bank has postponed funding to the crucial second phase of a child health program, citing possible fraud and corruption in procurement of medicines,” reports Asia Pulse (Australia).

“The Bank has also withheld loans to two other health sector projects until the corruption issue is addressed. ‘We have postponed consideration of a second Reproductive and Child Health Program (RCH) program and two other health sector loans by the Board of the Bank. These are the Second National Tuberculosis Control Project and the Karnataka Health Systems Project,’ the multilateral agency said in a statement. This will give more time for discussion between the Bank and the Indian government on the most effective ways to address issues of fraud moving forward, it said.

World Bank's Department of Institutional Integrity has been conducting an investigation into allegations of possible fraud and corruption in the procurement of pharmaceuticals as part of the Bank-supported Reproductive and Child Health Program (RCHP). World Bank strongly believes that corruption and leakages are a major development issue for they undermine the intended outcomes for which public money is spent, the statement said. ‘The Government of India shares this concern,’ it added.

In an op-ed published in The Indian Express, World Bank Country Director of India, Michael Carter writes, “There is little doubt that India has significantly improved the well being of its people in recent years. With phenomenal growth over the past two decades, it has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty and in improving major social indicators like literacy. India’s latest achievements -- the services sector boom, vibrant middle-class, quality of technical human resources, emerging global economic presence, and so on -- have become a dominant discourse of our times,” writes Carter.

“Thanks to this record, the world has grown to acknowledge India’s inherent ability to overcome its daunting development challenges. Nevertheless, the fact remains that at this time there exist two Indias -- the India of high technology and exciting services and consumer class-led growth, and the India of depressing poverty, lagging regions, appalling public services, and avoidable human misery. Let us look at the enormity of the challenges India still faces and how much it lags even by developing country standards. Eritrea reports 45 infant deaths per 1,000 live births; India is at a high 63. In Botswana, 100 of every 100,000 women die during childbirth; India’s figure is 408.

A crucial impediment in India’s march to development is the quality of its public expenditure. It is generally recognized that there is a very poor connect in India between the quantum of public money allocated and the accessibility and quality of services delivered. As a result, despite ambitious and expensive government programs in almost every sector of human development since Independence, over a quarter of India’s population languishes below the destitution line while a huge proportion of those above it remains vulnerable to slipping back into poverty with a single shock, such as a natural disaster or illness. If India truly wants to take the fruits of its rapid economic growth to every section of its diverse society, it needs to plug the leaks in its public expenditure. For corruption is among the greatest obstacles to equitable economic and social development. It distorts the rule of law and weakens the institutional foundation on which economic growth depends. It is especially severe on the poor, who are most reliant on the provision of public services and are least capable of paying the extra costs associated with bribery and fraud.

As the globe’s foremost development institution, the World Bank is profoundly committed to improving the quality of people’s lives. We at the Bank strongly believe that corruption and leakages are a major development issue for they undermine the intended outcomes for which public money is spent. The Government of India shares this concern. In pursuit of this commitment, the World Bank’s Department of Institutional Integrity has been conducting an investigation into allegations of possible fraud and corruption in the procurement of pharmaceuticals under the Bank-supported Reproductive and Child Health Program I (RCHI). The investigation is still ongoing, but we have shared our findings so far with the Indian government and are working closely with it to resolve the issues.

Because corruption ultimately sabotages policies and programs that aim to reduce poverty, a crucial part of the World Bank’s mission as a development institution is to help support anti-corruption efforts anywhere. By insisting on rigorous and stringent procurement procedures for projects we are involved in, we hope to demonstrate development benefits of outcome-based public expenditure. In India, we are fully committed to backing the government’s efforts to bring its procurement procedures up to the highest international standards of integrity and transparency.

Needless to say, the Bank can only perform a bit part in this effort to reduce the corrosive impact of corruption in a sustainable way. The most decisive intervention can only come from Indian civil society, that vital band of stakeholders in good governance, and institutions like the media that, in India, mediate so effectively between the state and the public.

Link: http://health.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/reprohealth_india/message/366

Republished here by courtesy of: The Yahoo Groups.