Anticorruption and Integrity

Underpinned by ADB's zero tolerance for corruption, the Office of Anticorruption and Integrity aligns with ADB’s commitment to strengthen governance across Asia and the Pacific as it mitigates integrity risks, investigates integrity violations, and promotes integrity among ADB’s stakeholders.

Sanctions

ADB imposes sanctions on parties that have engaged in fraudulent, corrupt, coercive, collusive, obstructive practices, or other integrity violations.

In accordance with the Cross Debarment Agreement, ADB may cross debar parties that have been debarred by any of the participating multilateral development banks (MDBs), and vice versa.

To ensure a consistent approach, participating MDBs agreed on harmonized principles for sanctions and treatment of corporate groups. Each participating institution may incorporate these guidelines into their respective processes for considerations of sanctions.

The following statistics provide an overview on the number of firms and individuals ineligible to participate in any ADB-financed activity, those whose eligibility have been reinstated, and those who have been imposed with other remedial measures.

Sanctions (covering 1 January to 31 March  2023) Firms1 Individuals2
Total declared ineligible to participate in ADB-financed activity3 3,112 1,176
Currently ineligible to participate in ADB-financed activity 1,624 880
          ADB Sanctions 961 659
          Cross debarred entities submitted by Multilateral Development Banks4 663 221
Reinstated 1,488 296
          Upon appeal 14 9
          Upon completion of ineligibility 357 114
          Upon completion of cross debarment 1,117 173
Cautioned/reprimanded 505 289

1Debarred entities are ineligible to participate in ADB activities. A debarred firm’s ineligibility extends to all employees and officers of a firm, and may extend to other principals and contractual employees of the firm.

2Debarred individuals may not participate in ADB-related activity, as individuals or through nomination by an eligible firm, unless they have completely disassociated themselves with an ineligible firm.

3Since 1998 when ADB's Anticorruption Policy was established.

4African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank.


Sanctions period

The base sanction for integrity violations is 3-year debarment. The Integrity Oversight Committee (IOC) may impose a greater or lesser debarment period depending on the circumstances of each case. The IOC will be guided by the following ranges:

Debarment Individuals Firms
First debarments, including cases where a party has previously been given a reprimand up to indefinite up to 7 years
Second debarments up to indefinite up to 10 years
Subsequent debarments up to indefinite up to 20 years

Sanctions list

Sanctions lists of other multilateral development banks (MDBs):