ROLE OF THE WORLD BANK IN COMBATING CORRUPTION IN THE RECIPIENT COUNTRIES: ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES

This article examines the role of the World Bank in combating corruption in its recipient countries, assessing its achievements and the significant challenges it faces. It traces the evolution of the Bank's anti-corruption agenda, from its traditional reluctance to address "political" issues to its landmark recognition of corruption as a major impediment to development in the mid-1990s. The study analyzes the key components of the Bank's anti-corruption strategy, which includes supporting governance and institutional reforms in recipient countries, ensuring that its own projects are free from corruption, and contributing to global anti-corruption efforts. The research provides a critical assessment of the effectiveness of this strategy. The paper argues that while the World Bank has played a crucial role in putting corruption on the global agenda and in promoting important governance reforms, its impact on the ground has often been limited by the deep-seated political nature of corruption. The analysis concludes that the fight against corruption is a long-term and complex challenge that requires a deep and sustained engagement with the political realities of each country.

In the mid-1990s, the World Bank famously declared that it would fight the "cancer of corruption," marking a major shift in its mandate. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the Bank's role in this fight. The first part of the study outlines the Bank's multi-pronged anti-corruption strategy. This includes the "mainstreaming" of governance concerns into all its lending operations, the provision of technical assistance to countries to help them build their own anti-corruption institutions (such as audit offices and anti-corruption commissions), and the enforcement of its own strict anti-corruption guidelines for Bank-financed projects, which can lead to the "debarment" of corrupt firms. The core of the article is a critical evaluation of the achievements and challenges of this strategy. It acknowledges the Bank's considerable success in raising global awareness and in promoting a set of "good governance" norms. However, the paper then delves into the significant challenges that have limited the Bank's impact. A key argument is that the Bank, as an intergovernmental organization owned by its member states, is often constrained in its ability to confront the high-level "political corruption" that is often the root of the problem. The paper also discusses the inherent difficulty of promoting good governance in contexts where there is a lack of political will for reform from the ruling elite. The findings suggest a mixed record. The paper concludes that while the World Bank is a powerful and necessary actor in the global fight against corruption, it is not a magic bullet, and its success is ultimately contingent on the political dynamics and the domestic demand for reform within the recipient countries themselves.