Integrity and Transparency

The IDB's commitment to integrity and transparency begins with its own staff. IDB employees adhere to strict ethical standards, as set forth in the 2007 Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. The Board of Executive Directors is subject to its own Code. The Bank's Ethics Officer, a position created in 2007, investigates ethical violations by Bank staff and ensures compliance with financial disclosure requirements.  In October 2011, the Bank announced a series of reforms to strengthen its staff ethics, conduct and grievance systems, after an independent review conducted by Global Compliance Services Inc.

The Bank strives to ensure its activities are free of fraud and corruption and subject to the strictest control mechanisms. A series of measures announced in December 2009 has expanded the anti-corruption framework approved in 2001, providing additional protection for whistleblowers and enhancing the staff and mandate of the Office of Institutional Integrity (OII). The OII, an independent advisory office within the Bank's basic organization, investigates charges of wrongdoing, recommends sanctions and develops “red flags” teaching materials to help deter fraud in public-sector procurement, among other activities.

The new measures also created the Case Officer position, which reviews OII investigative findings and has the authority to sanction parties for wrongdoing. Case Officer recommendations can be appealed to the seven-member Sanctions Committee, which includes four external members.

The Action Plan for Supporting Countries' Efforts to Combat Corruption and Increasing Transparency (PAACT) also adopted in 2009 calls for increased use of diagnostic tools such as fiduciary, procurement and financial accountability assessments and “integrity risk reviews.”

Two accountability mechanisms, the Access to Information Policy and the Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism, ensure that the Bank’s activities, especially the projects it finances, benefit from stakeholders having timely access to information.

The Bank's Administrative Tribunal settles disputes which arise out of the employment relationship of the Bank or the Corporation with their staff members.