PIMENTEL URGES ADB TO BARE IDENTITIES OF 41 ERRING FIRMS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today asked the Senate to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, into the reported sanctions imposed by the Asian Development Bank against 41 firms and 38 individuals for corruption involving bank-financed activities.

Pimentel said the Senate, through an appropriate committee, should inquire into the identities of the sanctioned firms and individuals, especially if these are Filipinos, so that the government and the public will be properly guided.

A published report from the ADB's Integrity Division reveals that 582 companies and individuals have been banned from working with the bank since 1998 when it began investigating the alleged corrupt practices.

In 2008 alone, the ADB received 186 complaints, resulting in 89 investigations, representing a 23 percent increase from the 2006 level and a ten-fold leap since the bank's anti-corruption drive started in 1998.

The same report revealed that 74 percent of the cases investigated involved bank-financed activities while 18 percent involved bank staff members. Of those investigated for that year, 41 firms and 38 individuals were sanctioned by the ADB.

The companies sanctioned have been prohibited from doing business with ADB for up to seven years, while similar sanctions against individuals ranged from one year to an indefinite period.

Pimentel said there is an imperative need to look into the details and background of the ADB report, including the identities of the sanctioned firms and individuals. He said it is also necessary to prevent them from engaging in "collusive practices" with government agencies in any activity or project financed by the ADB and other international funding agencies.

"In view of the ongoing Senate investigation of construction firms blacklisted by the World Bank for alleged collusive and fraudulent practices, we are once again left without the first-hand knowledge of the firms and individuals mentioned in the ADB report, which may result in the undue bias to Philippine companies doing business with the ADB," he said

"If only the ADB will disclose the names of the firms and individuals they had sanctioned for corruption, they will be able to help the Philippine government curb and resolve corruption in the country and dispel doubts over the integrity of some of the Philippine companies doing business with ADB."

According to the ADB, the process through which the Bank imposes sanctions is administrative, not a legal or judicial assessment of fraudulent or corrupt practices.