The World Bank on Feb. 23 said “exceptional circumstances” justify secrecy for documents about its review of a contract to audit Sierra Leone’s use of Bank funds concerning Covid-19.
Without further explanation, the Bank denied a request by Eyeonglobaltransparency.net for Bank documents about a $324,000 auditing contract awarded June 23, 2020, by the Sierra Leone government to the accounting firm BDO Sierra Leone.
The contract amount was four times larger than the projected expenditure ($80,000) for “internal audit services.” It is termed a “direct” contract, meaning that it was not subject to competitive bidding.
The Bank routinely conducts reviews of government contracts using Bank funds if they are of “high value and/or high risk,” according to the Bank procurement rules. The Bank conducted a “prior review” of the auditing contract awarded by the Sierra Leone government using Bank funds.
Contracts that were the subjects of “prior” and “post” reviews are listed on the Bank website. The contracts themselves are not posted, however, nor are the Bank review documents.
Eyeonglobaltransparency.net on Oct. 30, 2020, asked for “all Bank documents concerning the contract referenced here, for audit services in Sierra Leone as part of the Covid-19 project, including Bank review documents about this contract.”
World Bank Cites ‘Exceptional Circumstances’
The Bank on Feb. 23 denied the request for the documents “because they are covered by the Prerogative to Restrict Access under the Policy,” a rarely used justification.
The one-line denial refers to a section (IV 2) in the Bank’s Access to Information Policy (AI Policy) which states:
The Bank also reserves the right not to disclose, under exceptional circumstances, information that it would normally disclose if it determines that such disclosure is likely to cause harm that outweighs the benefits of disclosure.
The Bank did not describe the “exceptional circumstances” or say what likely “harm” is involved. None of the other nondisclosure exemptions contained in the AI Policy were cited.
The denial decision under this provision of the AI Policy is to be made by “the director.” Many Bank officials have “director” in their title and the specific decision-maker was no stated.
It could be the country director for Sierra Leone or a director at Bank headquarters, based on language in the AI Directive/Procedure (page 17-18). It says:
- Prerogative to Restrict Access to Information Normally Disclosed Under the Policy. i. The “director” concerned who has authority to restrict access. The Policy provides that the “director” concerned is authorized to exercise the Bank’s prerogative to restrict access to information (other than Board records and papers) that is normally disclosed under the Policy. When information concerns a country, the director concerned is the relevant country director, who may consult with others (e.g., senior global practice director) as needed. In other cases, the relevant director may be the senior global director, depending on the nature of the information. More stringent approval mechanisms (e.g., approval by the VP concerned to restrict access to information normally disclosed) put into place by individual business units do not impact the authorization framework set out in the Policy.
Out of 6,524 public access requests received by the Bank from July 1, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2020, just 15 requests (0.23%) were denied under the Bank’s exercise of prerogative clause, according to Bank statistics.
Processing the request took almost four months, well beyond the usual timeframe for responses.
EYE can and will appeal, although the AI Policy is written to discourage appeals. Denials based on a “public interest” case can only be made if certain exemptions are used, seemingly not including the prerogative provision used here. Otherwise an appellant must make “a prima facie case that the Bank has violated this Policy by improperly or unreasonably restricting access to information that it would normally disclose under the Policy.”
Sierra Leone Audit Contract Subject of Review
When the Bank finances projects, such as those to fight Covid-19, the contracting is done by the recipient countries, but not without various kinds of Bank efforts to prevent corruption. The Bank also advocates for and supports reforms to national contracting processes, including support for greater transparency.
The prior and post reviews it conducts are part the Bank’s standard supervisory processes.
A separate EYE records request, for data on the reviews, was denied Nov. 6 after three months, and has been on appeal since Dec. 7.
For Sierra Leone, Bank funding has supported a wide variety of Covid-19 projects. As of December 2020, Sierra Leone had distributed about 70 percent of the $7.5 million provided by the Bank for Covid-19 relief, according to a Bank summary.
The contract for auditing with BDO is for 24 months, according to the procurement page but for six months, ending Dec. 27, 2020, according to the procurement plan. BDO is an international accounting firm.
The auditing contract for Sierra Leone is titled: “Internal Audit Services for the Sierra Leone COVID – 19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project.” It is listed on the relevant “procurement” page, one of 12 contracts posted, and the timing of its posting indicates that it was the subject of a review by the Bank staff.
Some contract information also is shown on a “Procurement Plan,” a document posted by the Bank and periodically updated. The latest version for Sierra Leone, for October, lists about 30 contracts related to Covid-19, the largest ones being for medical equipment and facilities.
The Bank in October 2020 began listing the contracts subject to post review, in addition to prior review,(See EYE article). EYE on July 27, 2020, reported that the Bank had publicly disclosed information about only 14 percent of the contracts signed by 26 African governments to fight Covid-19 with Bank funds, those which were subject to prior review. (See EYE article)
The Bank puts limited information online about the contracts it reviews, listing the contract award winner, the size of the contract and the award date. The Bank does not publish the contracts themselves.
EYE was unable to locate the contract on Sierra Leone’s online procurement website, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there or is otherwise available in Sierra Leone.
