AfDB President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina
The bureau of board of governors of the African Development Bank Group has constituted a panel to conduct an independent review of the report of the ethics committee on the allegations made by whistleblowers against the president of the bank, Akinwumi Adesina.
A communiqué released by the bureau on Wednesday said that it agreed on the terms of reference for the independent review at its meetings of June 18 and July 1, 2020.
It, thereafter, selected three persons—Mary Robinson, Hassan B. Jallow and Leonard F. McCarthy—to constitute “a High-Level Panel of Independent Experts to conduct the said review”.
The communiqué, signed by Niale Kaba, Governor for Côte d’Ivoire, noted that the bureau expresses its utmost trust and confidence in the panel’s ability to successfully carry out the assignment and reaffirms its commitment to fully assisting the panel in the process.
The panel is expected to submit its report to the bureau within a period of two to four weeks maximum, the communiqué said.
Bank violating own rules?
Last month, PREMIUM TIMES reported how the decision of the governors to authorise an independent review of the allegations against Mr Adesina is a violation of the bank’s rule.
This newspaper’s analysis of the bank’s ethics committee’s report and its code of conduct for its executive directors, including its president, revealed that the ethics committee should not have referred the matter to the board in the first place.
The review also showed that the board should not have authorised an independent review of the report of the preliminary examination into the complaint as demanded by the U.S. government.
Article 3 Section 1 of Resolution B/BG/2008/11 empowers the Ethics Committee to “receive complaints and allegations relating to the violation of the provisions of the Code of Conduct by the President.” The resolution also stipulates that on receipt of such complaints and allegation, the ethics committee should “conduct preliminary examinations of such complaints”.
After exonerating Mr Adesina and describing each of the 16 allegations against him as either “unsubstantiated”, “spurious” or “unfounded”, the ethics committee proceeded to refer the matter to the bank’s board.
That is a clear violation of the regulation upon which the ethics committee claimed it acted, the report revealed.
By the rules, the committee should have taken no further action on the matter after it determined that the allegations were baseless and unfounded.
Article 4 of the resolution stated that the chairperson of the bureau of the board of governors, in consultation with other members of the bureau, has the final say whether or not a complaint against the President submitted to the board requires investigation “in relation to the violation by the president of any provision of the code of conduct”.
It stated that in taking this decision, the chairperson “may require the ethics committee and the person that made the complaint or allegation or any department of the bank, to provide additional information and clarifications, where necessary.”
In a recent visit to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mr Adesina, a former Nigerian minister for agriculture, said the allegations raised against him were trumped up, “and without facts, evidence, and documents, as required by the rules and regulations of the bank.”
Earlier, he had said that he is confident that a fair and just process of investigation would establish that he is innocent of all the allegations levelled against him.(Premium Times)
