Bloomberg reports that the abuses first came to public attention in September 2007, when previous World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz decided to suspend funding for the projects until better anti-graft measures were put in place.

The report, published on 11 January after a two-year inquiry, contains "sharp criticism of the bank itself failing to set up adequate measures to ensure that the large loans [US $568 million] were properly spent," according to the International Herald Tribune (IHT). The same article quotes the new World Bank President Robert Zoellick who commented that, "there were weaknesses in project design, supervision and evaluation."

According to the BBC, the projects included a "[US] $193.7m programme to tackle HIV/Aids, a [US] $124.8m tuberculosis scheme and a [US] $144m malaria programme." The IHT writes that the inquiry found that the corruption in the procurement process of the HIV/AIDS prevention programme meant that "poorly performing test kits" had been supplied, "producing erroneous or invalid results, potentially resulting in the further spread of disease."

In response to this detailed report, Zoellick says that "we [The World Bank] must keep up the pressure to eradicate corruption from our projects and make sure the money gets to the poor", adding that he is prepared to "punish any staff found to be negligent in spotting and reporting abuses" (Bloomberg). According to a World Bank press release, Zoellick said that, “the [World] Bank’s governance and anticorruption work from now on would be placed before the scrutiny of independent and external reviewers to ensure that the institution was making tangible progress in its fight against corruption.”

For its part, the Indian government has promised to take "exemplary" action against those found guilty, the Times of India reports.