By Christian Pfeipher

All Africa reports that the World Bank also plans to scrutinize the role of private firms in "exporting corruption" and to punish them where it is detected. The International Herald Tribune reports that the Bank has decided to freeze loans to several countries highly affected by corruption, including India, Kenya and Chad. Strong criticism of this strategy from Hilary Benn, UK Secretary of State for International Development, appears in a Financial Times article: “Only poor people will be affected”.

Critics stressed that the Bank should concentrate more on the supply side of corruption. A 20 April Reuters story quotes Max Lawson, policy advisor at Oxfam International: “Where the Bank can really deliver is by naming and shaming big companies that pay bribes.” Reuters further reports allegations by Steve Hellinger of Development GAP that the World Bank facilitated control of public infrastructure and other assets in borrowing countries by U.S. companies and other World Bank shareholders for 60 years.

According to Reuters, the Bank’s member states backed its anti-corruption agenda but insisted on a stronger voice in its implementation.

By Kristi Benedict

Postponing Bulgaria’s accession until 2008, although a possibility, remains unlikely. The Financial Times reports that “such a move would have to be approved unanimously by the 25 member states, a highly unlikely scenario given that countries such as Britain and Poland want Bulgaria and Romania to join on schedule next year”. Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev has expressed concern over possible postponement, commenting to the BBC in late March that: “A postponement would cause disappointment towards the EU. It would deprive the Union of credibility and could have a negative effect on the fragile development of the West Balkans”. The Guardian notes that delaying membership might “make no difference and might set back reform programmes”.

Olli Rehn, the EU’s enlargement minister, has indicated that Bulgaria needs to do more to reform its judicial branch and to tackle corruption and organised crime if it plans to join on schedule. In mid-April Agence France Presse indicated that Mr Rehn had “serious concerns about the rule of law in the country. We need concrete tangible results in fighting high-level corruption and organised crime to show that nobody is above the law”.

The BBC reported in late March that Bulgaria claimed to be making progress against corruption, as “nine Bulgarian members of Parliament [were] under investigation for corruption”. Bulgaria also has a new anti-corruption body and has appointed a public prosecutor. The Irish Times noted that “Bulgaria’s parliament did approve amendments that aim to increase accountability in the country’s lumbering courts and prosecution service which have failed to reduce the grip of organised crime on every level of business and politics”.

The European Commission will decide on 16 May if Bulgaria will join as scheduled.

By Kristi Benedict

Agence France Presse indicated that the programme in question is the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) programme, intended to combat child and maternal mortality. The Indian Express indicated that “the Bank has also postponed consideration of the second phase of the RCH and two other programmes, the Second National Tuberculosis Control Project and the Karnataka Health Systems Project”.

What does this mean for India, the worlds’ largest democracy? The Indian Express claimed that “at this time there exist two Indias – the India of high technology and exciting services and consumer class-led growth, and the India of depressing poverty lagging regions, appalling public services, and avoidable human misery”. The paper indicated that “money dispersed is often taken as a mark of money well-spent”. Michael Carter, the World Bank’s director for India, indicated to Agence France Press that “corruption has gutted many ambitious and expensive public welfare programmes in India”. The Times of India writes: “The Bank may have just discovered corruption, but it is no news at all to the public”.

India Today reported that the government has put 14 safeguards in place to ensure greater transparency in the programme. Even the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development has "concurred with the safeguards and expressed its unhappiness at the delay in the approval of the project by the Bank”.