We are pleased that corruption is now firmly on the international development agenda. Withholding funds for specific projects, programs, or contractors is a necessary recourse when there is clear evidence of corruption. To decrease opportunities for corruption and to increase the efficient use of development funds, we also urge the World Bank and the regional development banks to move quickly on the Development Committee Task Force's recommendations that the MDBs coordinate procurement rules. We applaud the significant revisions that the World Bank has made to strengthen its procurement and consultant guidelines. We request all of the MDBs take immediate action to establish uniform rules harmonized to the highest standard, to require the use of standard bidding documents, and to have strong oversight by headquarters of the procurement process.
Corruption also undermines the integrity and efficiency of macroeconomic policy programs.
Therefore, we also welcome the effort by the Managing Director of the IMF to strengthen the Fund's focus on good governance and anti-corruption initiatives. The increasing recognition that corruption has adverse effects on economic performance suggests that these issues should be addressed as a routine matter in Fund country reviews and documents as necessary. We welcome IMF efforts to develop operational guidelines for the role of the Fund in governance issues. In addition, we believe that by cataloging cases in which corruption or other poor practices have undermined adjustment, the Fund could begin to distill a set of best practices and develop parameters for determining when the Fund might appropriately undertake specific governance reviews of individual countries. The Bribery Working Group in that institution has completed a year of very valuable work on a recommendation for criminalizing bribery of foreign officials.