After a delay of nine months, finally the Vaughn Report, which was commissioned by the World Bank as a guide to modernise the bank's whistleblower protection policies was publicised by the Government Accountability Project (gap), us. Since the report's release, the World Bank has pointedly refused to consult staff on the recommendations or accept any help from the experts to implement the report.
The major recommendations of the report incorporate best practices adopted by the un and enacted as us policy to fortify anti-corruption efforts at all multilateral development banks.
Even though the World Bank claims that it has sufficient safeguards to protect whistleblowers, gap says that bank whistleblowers are not only prevented from taking exposs directly to the board, but are also under threat of termination for leaking them to external law enforcement authorities.
The report recommends that the independence of the bank's investigative unit, which is the Department of Institutional Integrity, must be ensured by making it report directly to the World Bank's board and subject it to external evaluation.
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