Investigations

Investigations help safeguard development funds and prevent integrity problems from recurring.

The Office of Anticorruption and Integrity (OAI) screens complaints to ensure they relate to an integrity violation and involve ADB-related activities.

OAI considers whether or not the complaints are:

• within OAI’s mandate - relate to activities that OAI is authorized to investigate;
• credible - there is a reasonable possibility that a violation has occurred;
• verifiable - practicable options exist to obtain sufficient evidence to determine the truth of the allegations on the balance of probabilities; and
• material - the matter is of sufficient importance to justify the projected requirements of the investigation and any remedial action.

Complaints that meet all four criteria are converted into full investigations. Otherwise, the complaint is closed.

OAI’s Integrity Principles and Guidelines require that its investigative findings are presented to subjects of an investigation whenever possible. Subjects may prepare an explanation of the facts and circumstances from their perspective and in their own words. This explanation is presented to ADB’s Integrity Oversight Committee (IOC) for consideration. As the investigation process is administrative in nature, ADB’s procedures do not provide for personal appearances or representations at IOC meetings.

The IOC has sole discretion to assess whether an alleged violation has taken place, and if so, will determine the appropriate remedial actions or sanctions.

The following statistics provide an overview of complaints received, investigations opened, and remedial measures imposed by ADB directly and through the cross debarment agreement with other MDBs since the start of 2018.