Anticorruption and Integrity

A Turkish firm complained to ADB about the delay in the implementation of its contract with an executing agency (EA). OAGI referred the complaint to the project department, which immediately contacted the EA.

ADB found out that the EA requested the firm to reduce its contract price as recommended by the supervising ministry.

The project department emphasized to the EA that if any price reduction was made for the procurement package after contract signing, ADB will declare it a misprocurement regardless of the government's internal process prior to signing. Once misprocurement is declared, loan proceeds will be cancelled and the government will need to finance the amount equivalent to the total cost of misprocured package from its own funds. The EA agreed to go back to the original contract price.

The positive outcome of this case has significant implications in other large procurement packages under the project. The project department will continuously monitor the procurement practices of the EA.

As a result of one case where ADB found that the authorized representative of a firm was using an alias to commit fraud, the Central Operations Services Office (COSO) acted immediately to strengthen ADB's requirements during contract negotiation. COSO now requires the winning consulting firm to provide

• a copy of the photo/signature passport page(s) of their authorized representative(s)
• relevant written authorization for the representative(s) to negotiate and sign the contract with ADB on behalf of the firm.