The Individual Respondent (“Respondent”) was assigned to the Executing Agency and was involved in the execution of the Support for Haiti Transportation Sector Program (the “Program”), receiving a supplementary salary paid with Program funds. The Office of Institutional Integrity (“OII”) submitted a Statement of Charges and Evidence against the Respondent, among others, for allegedly engaging in a fraudulent practice related to the Program. OII’s specific accusations were that the Respondent misrepresented the qualifications of an entity to the Bank in order to justify the direct award of contracts to the company. In conjunction with the Statement of Charges, OII submitted a Request to temporarily suspend the Respondent from participating in programs financed by the Bank Group. Consequently, and in accordance with the Sanctions Procedures, the Sanctions Officer (“SO”) issued a Notice of Temporary Suspension and a Notice of Administrative Action (“Notice”) to the Respondent. In his Response to the Notice, the Respondent denied that he engaged in a fraudulent practice.

The SO determined that it is more likely than not that the Respondent engaged in a fraudulent practice. As a result, the SO imposed a sanction of debarment for a period of two (2) years, during which time the Respondent will be ineligible to participate or be awarded contracts for projects or activities financed by the Bank Group. In determining the sanction, the SO took into account, as mitigating factors, the period of Temporary Suspension already served by the Respondent and his acceptance of responsibility at an early stage of the investigation. Likewise, the SO took into account, as an aggravating factor, the damage caused to the Bank’s operations including the damage to the integrity of the procurement process.

The Determination of the SO was not appealed by the Respondent to the Sanctions Committee and therefore, in accordance with the Sanctions Procedures, the sanction imposed entered into force. The Bank provided notice of this declaration of ineligibility to the other Multilateral Development Banks that are a party to the Agreement for Mutual Enforcement of Debarment Decisions.