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22 U.S.C. § 262o–4Promotion of policy goals

submitted 21 years ago by Pub. L. 95-118 to r/title-22-FOREIGN-RELATIONS-AND-INTERCOURSE · 785 words · no verdicts yet

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Treasury must push development banks to adopt anti-corruption and accountability policies. Banks should require financial disclosures, protect whistleblowers, and publicize debarred contractors. Treasury must also publish U.S. positions on major bank decisions online.

(a) In general The Secretary of the Treasury must instruct the U.S. Executive Director at each multilateral development bank to inform the bank and its directors of U.S. policy under this section, and actively promote this policy and the goals in section 262o–3 of this title. U.S. policy is that each bank should: (1) Require the bank's employees, officers, and consultants to yearly disclose their financial interests, income, and any other potential conflicts of interest. (2) Link project and program results to staff performance reviews, salaries, and bonuses. (3) Set up voluntary disclosure programs for firms and individuals working on bank-financed projects. (4) Make sure all loan, credit, guarantee, and grant documents include the resources and conditions needed to ensure that borrowers comply with applicable bank policies and national and international laws — including laws on transparency, access to information, public health, safety, and environmental protection. (5) Adopt clear anti-corruption rules setting out when someone will be barred from getting a bank loan, contract, grant, guarantee, or credit, make those rules public, and publish who has been barred. (6) Coordinate policies across banks — on debarment, cross-debarment, procurement rules, consultant rules, and fiduciary standards — so someone barred by one bank is presumed ineligible to do business with any other bank during that ban period. (7) Require every bank borrower, grantee, bidder, supplier, and contractor to meet the highest ethical standards against coercion, collusion, corruption, and fraud, as defined in the World Bank's May 2004 Procurement Guidelines. (8) Keep a functionally independent Investigations Office, Auditor General Office, and Evaluation Office, free from interference in setting the scope of investigations, internal audits, and reporting results, that regularly report to the bank's board and, consistent with their independence, to the bank's president. (9) Require every candidate for adjustment or budget-support loans to show transparent budget and procurement processes, including published budgets and public scrutiny, before the loan or grant is approved. (10) Require that, on projects compensating people harmed by the project, those people can use a fair, responsive complaint mechanism, easy for all parts of the affected community to reach, that doesn't block access to other legal remedies and doesn't invite retaliation. (11) Adopt best practices from domestic law and international anti-corruption agreements for protecting whistleblowers and witnesses — bank employees and others affected by the bank's work who report illegal conduct or misconduct that could threaten the bank's mission — against retaliation, including fair legal burdens of proof, access to independent bodies like external arbitration, and remedies that undo any proven retaliation. (12) Require, as much as possible, that draft country strategies be released for public comment at least 45 days before the bank's board considers them. (b) Publication of position statement Starting 30 days after November 14, 2005, and within 60 calendar days of the relevant bank board meeting, the Secretary of the Treasury must publish on the Treasury Department's website a statement explaining the U.S. position on decisions about: (1) operational policies; and (2) any proposal likely to significantly affect the environment. (c) "Multilateral development bank" defined In this section, "multilateral development bank" has the meaning given in section 262m–7 of this title, and also includes the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Global Environment Facility.
the actual law source: uscode.house.gov ↗public domain
(a) In general

The Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States Executive Director at each multilateral development bank to inform each such bank and the executive directors of each such bank of the policy of the United States as set out in this section and to actively promote this policy and the goals set forth in section 262o–3 of this title. It is the policy of the United States that each bank should—

(1)

require the bank’s employees, officers and consultants to make an annual disclosure of their financial interests and income and of any other potential source of conflict of interest;

(2)

link project and program design and results to management and staff performance appraisals, salaries, and bonuses;

(3)

implement voluntary disclosure programs for firms and individuals participating in projects financed by such bank;

(4)

ensure that all loan, credit, guarantee, and grant documents and other agreements with borrowers include provisions for the financial resources and conditionality necessary to ensure that a person or country that obtains financial support from a bank complies with applicable bank policies and national and international laws in carrying out the terms and conditions of such documents and agreements, including bank policies and national and international laws pertaining to the comprehensive assessment and transparency of the activities related to access to information, public health, safety, and environmental protection;

(5)

implement clear anti-corruption procedures setting forth the circumstances under which a person will be barred from receiving a loan, contract, grant, guarantee or credit from such bank, make such procedures available to the public, and make the identity of such person available to the public;

(6)

coordinate policies across multilateral development banks on issues including debarment, cross-debarment, procurement guidelines, consultant guidelines, and fiduciary standards so that a person that is debarred by one such bank is subject to a rebuttable presumption of ineligibility to conduct business with any other such bank during the specific ineligibility period;

(7)

require each bank borrower and grantee and each bidder, supplier and contractor for MDB projects to comply with the highest standard of ethics prohibiting coercive, collusive, corrupt and fraudulent practices, such as are defined in the World Bank’s Procurement Guidelines of May, 2004;

(8)

maintain a functionally independent Investigations Office, Auditor General Office and Evaluation Office that are free from interference in determining the scope of investigations (including forensic audits), internal auditing (including assessments of management controls for meeting operational objectives and complying with bank policies), performing work and communicating results, and that regularly report to such bank’s board of directors and, as appropriate and in a manner consistent with such functional independence of the Investigations Office and the Auditor General Office, to the bank’s President;

(9)

require that each candidate for adjustment or budget support loans demonstrate transparent budgetary and procurement processes including budget publication and public scrutiny prior to loan or grant approval;

(10)

require that for each project where compensation is to be provided to persons adversely affected by the project, such persons have recourse to an impartial and responsive mechanism to receive and resolve complaints. The mechanism should be easily accessible to all segments of the affected community without impeding access to other judicial or administrative remedies and without retribution;

(11)

implement best practices in domestic laws and international conventions against corruption for whistleblower and witness disclosures and protections against retaliation for internal and lawful public disclosures by the bank’s employees and others affected by such bank’s operations who challenge illegality or other misconduct that could threaten the bank’s mission, including: (1) best practices for legal burdens of proof; (2) access to independent adjudicative bodies, including external arbitration based on consensus selection and shared costs; and (3) results that eliminate the effects of proven retaliation; and

(12)

require, to the maximum extent possible, that all draft country strategies are issued for public consideration no less than 45 days before the country strategy is considered by the multilateral development bank board of directors.

(b) Publication of position statement

The Secretary of the Treasury shall, beginning thirty days after November 14, 2005, and within sixty calendar days of the meeting of the respective bank’s Board of Directors at which such decisions are made, publish on the Department of the Treasury website a statement or explanation of the United States position on decisions related to: (1) operational policies; and (2) any proposal which would result or be likely to result in a significant effect on the environment.

(c) “Multilateral development bank” defined

In this section the term “multilateral development bank” has the meaning given that term in section 262m–7 of this title and also includes the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Global Environment Facility.

Source credit: (Pub. L. 95–118, title XV, § 1505, as added Pub. L. 109–102, title V, § 599B, Nov. 14, 2005, 119 Stat. 2241.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit
  • 2005Enacted · Pub. L. 95-118 · 119 Stat. 2241

A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 95-118 on 2005-11-14.

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