Padma Bridge: Moral obligation of World Bank

In 2012, when World Bank came out with the allegation of corruption relating to Padma Bridge, all hell broke loose in Bangladesh.
It was a serious allegation of 'conspiracy' plotted to stage a high-level corruption in the Padma Bridge project for which the World Bank had committed US$1.2 billion. The Bank claimed to have credible evidence corroborated by a variety of sources which point to a high-level corruption conspiracy among Bangladeshi government officials and SNC Lavalin and threatened cancellation of the International Development Association (IDA) credit unless all public officials suspected of involvement in the corruption scheme are sent on leave and specially enquiry team formed within the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to handle the investigation.
The Bangladesh government agreed to place and did place all public officials suspected of involvement in the alleged corruption scheme on leave from government employment until an investigation is completed, appointed a special inquiry and prosecution team within the ACC to handle the investigation and granted access to all investigative information to an external panel of internationally recognised experts who advised the Bank and co-financiers on the credibility of the government's investigations.
But all these measures were in vain. The World Bank (WB) cancelled the US$ 1.2 billion IDA credit to Padma Bridge as it remained concerned about corruption in Bangladesh in general and in the Padma bridge project in particular.
Five years later, a Canadian Court held that there was not a shred of evidence of Padma Bridge Bribery Conspiracy and acquitted three former top executives of SNC Lavalin. An Ontario Superior Court Justice dismissed the case at the request of the prosecution which proved beyond any doubt that the World Bank had based its judgment on hearsay and gossips. Earlier, ACC's finding was also that the allegation of corruption conspiracy was baseless.  
This was an unprecedented episode in the 70-year history of the World Bank. Both the charges of corruption as well as the cancellation of credit line of US$ 1.2 billion hurt Bangladesh in many ways and should not be allowed to pass unchallenged. From the extracts of the judgment reported in the press, it appears that in March 2011, the World Bank contacted Royal Canadian Mounted Police saying that it had received allegation of possible corruption involving SNC Lavalin and the Padma Bridge Project. Paul Haynes, an investigator in the World Bank's Vice Presidency for integrity, raised the allegation on the basis from emails from tipsters whom he did not meet nor knew the identity of some of them. Therefore, for all practical purposes, the information came from an anonymous source and should not have been the basis of any complaint by the World Bank. The court observed that the allegation of one of the tipsters was very general in nature and was irrelevant to the allegation and that the World Bank knew that one of the tipsters had been involved in corrupt practices in the same bidding process with another bidder.
All in all, it is apparent that the World Bank acted irresponsibly in raising this issue of corruption and to make it a ground for cancellation of US$ 1.2 billion IDA credit of Bangladesh.
Way back in 1974, a young, enthusiastic Bank economist, responsible for writing the Annual Economic Report of Bangladesh, mentioned of stories of corruption during the course of writing of the Report. Through oversight of the senior bank as well as Bangladesh government officials, these references to corruption found place in the Grey Cover of the Report which was duly circulated. On instruction from the government, I as an Alternate Executive Director (ED) of the WB, challenged the economist and the Director to substantiate the authenticity of the incidents of corruption to enable the Bangladesh government to prosecute those involved in the corruption. There was none. Nevertheless, the Director did not agree to withdraw and reprint the Report, but backed out when he was told about my decision to take the matter up in the next WB Board Meeting. The Report was withdrawn and reprinted after exclusion of all references to corruption. Through inadvertence, however, in one place the reference to corruption still remained. I insisted for a second reprinting of the Report before circulation which was duly complied with.  
President Jim Yong Kim cannot escape moral responsibility for this unhappy episode and should take the initiative to restore allocation of US$ 1.2 billion of IDA credit to the project, allow instant reimbursement of the cost so far incurred by the Bangladesh government and, last but not least, draw proceedings against those staff members who had invented and initiated the false conspiracy theory.  
The writer, the first Finance Secretary of Bangladesh, was Alternate ED of the World Bank from 1973 to 1977.
chairman@iidfc.com