Unic Press UK: The Boards of Governors of the AfDB Group have decided that an external review of an investigation by the Bank’s Ethics Committee be carried out to determine whether Akinwumi Adesina, the AfDB president, is actually free of wronging as concluded by the Committee, the Bloomberg reports.
The decision of the Board is in deference to U.S. rejection of the outcome of the Ethics Committee report, which had exonerated Mr. Adesina.
Embattled president of AfDB, Adesina, is accused of impunity, corruption, self-promotion, and the pursuit of personal gain by a band of whistleblowers, also called ‘Group of Concerned Staff Members of the AfDB’, who, in January 2020, made a written complaint to some of the Bank’s executive directors’.
Initial investigations by the Bank’s Ethics Committee concluded that Adesina is free of wrongdoing, but, the United States Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, rejected the Committee’s report via a letter to the Chairperson of the Bank’s Board of Governors, Her Excellency Mme Niale Kaba, which reads:
“We fear that the wholesale dismissal of all allegations without appropriate investigation will tarnish the reputation of this institution as one that does not uphold high standards of ethics and governance”.
The whistleblowers have already rejected the findings of the Ethics Committee, insisting that fresh investigations be carried out.
