THE debarment period faced by a number of Filipino firms and individuals slapped by multilateral institutions will soon be expiring, but this may not guarantee their eligibility to participate in future projects.
Based on the public sanctions list made available by Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) and The World Bank Group based in Washington, nine firms and individuals will see the period of their debarment ending this month and next year.
However, reinstatement in the pool of contractors and suppliers of multilateral organizations is not automatic upon the expiration of the debarment period. For the ADB, reinstatement is contingent on the request of these firms and parties, which will be up for evaluation.
“A debarred party is not automatically reinstated upon the expiry of the minimum debarment period. To restore eligibility, debarred parties must seek reinstatement,” ADB Office of Anticorruption and Integrity (OAI) documents stated.
“Upon receipt of a request for reinstatement, [the] ADB, through [its] OAI, will reassess the sanction in order to determine whether to reinstate the party or extend the period [e.g., if the party is known to have engaged in any integrity violation during its sanction period], in accordance with the procedures on reinstatement,” the document stated.
Based on the sanctions list of the World Bank, Berkman International Inc. whose debarment began on June 29, 2017 will see its 5-year debarment period expire on June 28.
Two other firms will see their World Bank Group debarment periods expiring are the Philippines Branch Zhejiang Hydro & Power Construction Group Co., Ltd. in June 2023 while Ramky Cleantech Services (Philippines) Pte. Ltd. in August 2023. Both were sanctioned for two years.
The list also includes Innology Solutions Inc. and its president whose debarment period will end on September 15, 2023. The company and the official will see their ADB debarment period expire earlier in February 2023.
Four other firms and individuals linked to LFP Trading and One-Chem Industrial Sales Philippines will see their debarment periods expire on February 12, 2023. These entities were cross-debarred by the World Bank based on findings by the ADB that they violated the Manila-based multilateral development bank’s “integrity principles and guidelines.”
“Cross-debarment is an agreement among the African Development Bank Group, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank Group [referred to as multilateral development banks] to mutually enforce each other’s debarment actions, with respect to the four harmonized sanctionable practices, i.e. corruption, fraud, coercion, and collusion,” the Cross-Debarment website stated.
Since 2001, the World Bank Group has publicly sanctioned more than 700 firms and individuals. Over fiscal years 2015-2022, the Sanctions Board issued 30 decisions against a total of 39 respondents where only fraud had been alleged and 33 were found liable for fraud.
The World Bank said its Sanctions Board imposed on the respondents letters of reprimands and fixed debarments ranging from three months to three years. Debarments with conditional release have minimum periods of debarment ranging from 15 months to six years.
Meanwhile, the ADB said that as of April 2022 it sanctioned a total of 2,946 firms and 1,133 individuals. A total of 1,615 firms and 868 individuals are currently debarred from participating in any projects.
However, ADB data showed a total of 1,331 firms and 265 individuals have been reinstated. The data also showed 468 firms and 266 individuals were cautioned and reprimanded by the bank.