Probe International

(September 25, 2007) Despite wide news coverage of the Volcker-led inquiry to assess the World Bank’s Department of Institutional Integrity (INT), coverage of one of INT’s more effective internal anti-corruption investigations almost passed unnoticed. If not for recent editorial interest from the Wall Street Journal, an insightful glimpse of World Bank conflict of interest might have been lost. In "World Bank Corruption" and "Mind the GAP," editorial writers for the Wall Street Journal highlight an INT investigation they argue senior Bank officials are eager to discredit, even deep six.

(September 25, 2007) An investigation by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker into the World Bank’s internal anti-graft watchdog – the Department of Institutional Integrity (or INT) – blames World Bank staff and directors for failing to take corruption sufficiently seriously, says The Financial Times. Moreover, this institutional resistance has been the root cause of strife over the watchdog’s operations.

(September 25, 2007) The U.S. Senate is, once again, demanding more anti-corruption reforms at the World Bank before it hands over American tax dollars to keep the institution afloat.

(September 25, 2007) The World Bank has issued a discussion paper [PDF] in which its unnamed authors dismiss the concept of odious debts as “controversial” and attempts to define it as having met with “insurmountable difficulties.”

(September 25, 2007) In the first of its kind, top legal scholars and Third World debt activists will meet next week to develop ways that will allow public international and private law to assess outstanding loans for their legitimacy and ultimate cancellation.

(September 25, 2007) The Ecuadorian Ministry of Economy and Finance announced on July 23 that it was launching the world’s first debt audit commission.