Talks on $150m ADB loan for governance reform in Sept

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AZM Anas
The caretaker government will begin talks with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in early next month to secure US$150 million in loan meant for policy reform in the governance sector, sources said.
They said officials of the government and the ADB are scheduled to meet on September 2-3 in the city to negotiate the loan, called Governance Support Credit.
"We'll be sitting with the ADB officials on the proposed governance loan next month. If the negotiations are successful, the loan proposal will also be submitted to the bank's headquarters in late September," a source told the FE.
"The proposed loan will help Bangladesh carry out its ongoing reforms in judiciary, the executive and the Anti-Corruption Commission," the source added.
A cabinet division official said the lending agency has asked the government to announce establishment of an Office of the Ombudsman within 2008 as part of the grievance redress mechanism.
The loan will help Bangladesh make policy reforms in the areas of the National Integrity Strategy (NIS), the UN Convention Against Corruption, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), strengthening judiciary and accountability and grievance redress mechanisms, according to an ADB aide memoire submitted to the government.
As a first step to ensure a strong reform regime in governance, it is necessary to formulate and implement the National Integrity Strategy (NIS), which sits at the core of the good governance agenda, the ADB document noted.
The ADB feels that tackling graft requires that the ACC has a clear legal and policy framework, rigorous internal management systems, sufficient resources, and working partnerships with civil society.
It also feels that recent efforts to separate judiciary from the executive require that necessary systems are in place to anchor the separation on clear policies and legal frameworks.
A source at the ADB said the loan proposal is scheduled to be placed before the lender's board on September 28.
The ADB, headquartered in Manila, is expected to release in three tranches -- the first installment worth $45 million, the second one is $40 million and the third $45 million.
An official of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) said the release of residual loan amount is conditional upon the successful implementation of the first phase.
Primarily, the good governance programme has been slated for completion over the next four years since the inception of the project.
Approval and publication of the National Integrity Strategy (NIS), gazette notification for the amendment to the ACC Act and alignment to the UN Convention Against Corruption, and decentralisation of the ACC are among the conditions for the proposed credit.