By Toby McIntosh
The World Bank has publicly disclosed information about only 14 percent of the contracts signed by African governments to fight Covid-19 with Bank funds, according to research by eyeonglobaltransarency.net.
EYE’s review shows that the Bank’s website reports the existence of only 41 contracts by 26 African countries as of July 23.
However, there actually are “far more” contract awards, “over 300 as per our records,” according to Vinay Sharma, Director of Solutions and Innovations in Procurement, Governance Global Practice at the World Bank.
These 300 contracts are not described on the Bank’s website because there is no requirement to do so, according to a Bank spokesperson.
“The Bank is not obliged, under its policy to publish contracts that it post-reviews,” a Bank spokesperson said. “This is the reason why these contracts are not on the Bank’s web-site,” she said. “We are doing more than what we are required.”
Sharma said that “most of these are contracts that are subject to post-reviews by the Bank.” Such reviews are conducted by Bank staff after governments award contracts to verify that the procurement conformed to Bank standards.
The Bank’s “Covid-19 Emergency Response Project” is intended to provide about $14 billion to more than 100 countries. Most of the 26 African projects were approved in March or early April, followed by “Procurement Plans.”
The “procurement plans” as a whole indicate plans for about 475 planned expenses, by EYE’s count, for medical supplies, equipment and construction of healthcare facilities. Most of the Covid-19 spending is done through national procurement systems, although the Bank has facilitated some purchases via UN agencies.
Bank “records” show 300 contracts, compared to the 41 posted online, for a disclosure ratio of one in seven.
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Bank Discloses Fraction of Known Contracts
For each country’s Covid-19 project, the Bank website has a dedicated page for documents about the project. One page is devoted to “Procurement.” (Best starting point is here. Select a country and look for “Covid-19 Emergency Response Project.”)
EYE reviewed the Covid-19 project pages for 26 African countries. (EYE spreadsheet on World Bank Covid-19 procurement reporting)
The procurement pages are blank for 11 of the 26 countries receiving Bank funds related to Covid-19.
Overall, the Bank procurement pages show 41 total entries, an average of 1.6, as of July 23.Not all of the entries describe contracts, a few are broad descriptions of the planned procurements.
Two weeks earlier, on July 9, there were 33 entries. So in 14 days, only 8 more entries were added.
While EYE focused on Africa, the level of reporting for other recipient countries appears similar.
Bank Pushes Country Transparency
The Bank’s own transparency gap contrasts with the Bank’s efforts to press borrowing governments to post their contracts online.
Disclosure of contract information is widely considered vital to reducing corruption and facilitating oversight.
Bank planning documents for the Covid-19 projects frequently indicate sensitivity to the risks of questionable contracting practices. They include recommendations for transparency and audits, among other “mitigation” measures.
Some recipient countries are running behind on posting contracts and are being nudged by the Bank, Sharma said in a statement relayed the EYE.
“Given that most countries give a priority to awarding contracts and getting the equipment, supplies and medicines on the ground, we have noticed some delays in publication of these contracts,” he said.
As a result, the Bank’s procurement teams “are following up with the countries in getting the contracts published and are noting progress,” according to Sharma.
The Bank’s procurement regulations (5.93) say that governments should publish contracts within 10 business days of having notified the successful bidder.
The Bank’s own procurement disclosure pages potentially provide an additional source of contract information.
In another indication of the Bank’s concern about systemic procurement weaknesses, an international survey was conducted in April “among specialists and experts in the area of public procurement to document the readiness of national public procurement systems to critical emergencies and recently adopted procedures to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.” A Bank official said July 1 that the results are “being vetted.”
Kenya Provides Example of Limited Disclosure
A look at the limited disclosures on the Bank’s website pages about a few African countries illustrates EYE’s overall findings.
When an entry exists on the procurement page, it lists the essential facts of who won the contract, their name and the contract price. The Bank site does not link to the contracts.
For example, in Kenya, Gradian Health Systems of New York, is being paid $4 million for ventilators, according to the web page. A line for “Beneficial Ownership Details,” which only appears on some of the Bank’s pages, contains no information.
Only one other entry exists on the Kenya procurement page, a General Procurement Notice issued April 8, around the time that the Bank approved Covid-19 aid for Kenya and many countries. The \ notice summarizes the overall plan for spending the $50 million allocated by the Bank to Kenya to pay for “goods, works, related services and consulting services to be procured under this project.”
The single disclosed contract is only a fraction of Kenya’s expected procurement, as detailed in another document, Kenya’s “Procurement Plan.” There are now 14 iterations of the Kenyan plan, issued over three months, which are basically the same, but with modifications.
The latest Kenyan procurement plan, dated July 16, includes almost 30 originally planned purchases. Nine of these line items have been “cancelled.” Most of the other line items show as “pending implementation.” Only the ventilator contract with Gradian is shown as “signed.”
The low level of disclosure about Kenya on the Bank’s website is similar to that for most other African countries receiving Bank funds — dozens of expected expenditures, but only a few contracts revealed.
The highest number of listed contracts is eight, for Senegal.
Among the few recent contract information added to the Bank’s database, on July 21, is for the purchase of “reagents and testing kits” by Ethiopia from a company based in Hong Kong, BGI Health (HK) Co. Ltd., with a contract price of $5,680,000.
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