Joe Sambou/Kebba Dampha, I wish that it would be possible to eradicate corruption in our midst. You will agree with me that what international financial institutions and the private enterprises can do, at best, is to minimise and control it. This is what the AfDB and similar institutions are attempting to do. I try to show what the African Bank is doing in this regard and as you (Joe) have indicated similar institutions have similar policies. How effective are these policies? They can be as effective as all the payers would like them to be; government officials, private operators, donor community, beneficiaries, borrowers, lenders, law enforcement agencies including the judiciary, would like them to be. As Dampha has enumerated in his piece, numerous things can and do go wrong when the procurement rules are being applied. One way that the Bank tries to respond to this problem is to increase the number of supervision missions per project. Pre-Kabbaj years, some AfDB projects were never supervised during the life of the project, which averaged between 5-6 years. Now, the figure is up to 1.5 missions per project per year. A target of 2 missions per project per year could be reached after a second restructuring of the Bank, which is expected to take place shortly. The measurement of the effectiveness of the policy is more complex and tricky especially when there are numerous projects involved and financed by a multitude of donors, sometimes working on cross-purposes with different procurement rules and procedures. From a practical stand point however, I would settle for effectiveness criteria that m easure the frequency of complaints from bidders, consistency in the application of the bidding criteria, the evaluation report of the bid in question and a host of other issues too numerous to enumerate here. Suffice it to say that the efforts of a regional Bank such as the AfDB is hardly enough to prevent and/or control corruption. The efforts of all similar institution and organisations such as Transparency International working in tandem through the sharing of information, exchanging ideas on combating this malaise and harmonising our rules governing procurement is absolutely imperative if our individual policies can bear the desired result. The AfDB project proceeds in all other RMCs must be deposited in their respective Central Banks Special (and separate) accounts for each operation. There is no exception to this rule. Bank rules do not allow project loan proceeds to be deposited in foreign accounts, The G ambia included. Due to the regional nature of the AfDB, its limited capabilities in terms of size and staff mix has made it necessary, and through mutual agreement, that the IMF takes the lead in monetary matters because it better endowed (financially, politically and in terms of expertise), although the AfDB do participate in joint missions with the IMF and the Work Bank. Joe and Dampha, barley a decade ago, the mere mention of the word corruption in development literature was taboo. Now, it is acceptable and indeed desirable to deal with it face on without mincing words or using codified language. This in itself is a significant step forward in our determination to prevent the scourge from dismembering our already fragile economies, rendering all of us destitute. Have a good weekend. Sidi Sanneh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------