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KENYA: WORLD BANK DELAYS $265 MILLION AID OVER CORRUPTION January 31, 2006
Apunyu Bonny
(SomaliNet) Unless Kenyan government clears the pending corruption scandal, the World Bank will not clear delayed loans of $265 million to the country. This was revealed on Monday 30th.
Upon approving $145 million to Kenya at a time when President Mwai Kibaki's government faced fresh corruption charges involving senior ministers, The World Bank came under criticism. The Critics said the bank had sent a wrong signal by approving the funding.
Colin Bruce, World Bank Country Director however defended the loan, claiming that since last year concerns over corruption in Kenya resulted in credits worth $265 million being delayed. Bruce said the bank was also carrying out detailed auditing of its active programmes after it found problems in some of them.
"We are not going ahead with any operation until, not only is the environment acceptable, but we ourselves are comfortable that we can account for our funds," Bruce said.
"If you look at the totality of what the bank is saying, globally but also here in Kenya, I think there should be no question on where we stand on corruption," He added.
The loan announced last week was the first forwarded to the board for approval since October 2004. Bruce said the bank had approved the credit -- including $25 million to fight graft and $120 million for railway privatisation -- to boost accountability and transparency in institutions and to open up the budget system.
"The government spends about $5.8 billion a year, (of) which donors contribute about 8 percent. We felt that it is important to safeguard that money," he said.
The World Bank has 14 active programmes in Kenya worth $718 million.