Summary of the Request

The Request states that the Requester has suffered economic damages directly related to the street blockages required to repair the vault on the Jancakollo River as part of the La Paz Storm Drainage Program II. Among the allegations, the Requester indicates that the information given to local residents about the operation was limited and vague in terms of the duration of the work, which had a negative impact on businesses in the area.

MICI actions

Recent Actions

On October 2018, Management presented to the Board of Directors the document "Final Report on IDB Management’s Actions to address MICI Compliance Review Report Recommendations on La Paz Storm Drainage Program II."

Given that for this case the Executive Board did not request MICI to follow up on Management’s actions, with the Case Closure Report presented by the latter, MICI closes the management of the case.

The Final Report presented by Bank Management and the Closure Report are available in the case chronology below.

Past Actions

Following a period of time during which the eligibility process was suspended to allow the Requester and Bank Management to establish contact to address the issues contained in the Request, it was declared ineligible by the Eligibility Committee of the Consultation Phase on July 15, 2014, because it failed to meet the requirement set forth in paragraph 40(g) of the Policy, as one of the Parties declined to participate in the Consultation Phase process.

As sought by the Requester, the Request was transferred to the Compliance Review Phase, where it was declared eligible.

On 19 January 2016  MICI distributed the the draft version of the Recommendation for a Compliance Review and its Terms of Reference to the Requester and Management for comments. Both parties sent their comments to the MICI within the prescribed period. The final document was distributed to the Board of Executive Directors for consideration under short procedure on November 29, 2016. On December 6, 2016, the Board of Executive Directors approved the Recommendation and Terms of Reference for a Compliance Review.

On February 1st, 2017, the independent specialists Ione Novoa (Brazil) and Helen Russell (UK) were hired to conduct the investigation of the case led by the MICI Compliance Review Phase Coordinator.

On May 31, 2017, as requested by MICI, the Board of Executive Directors approved a thirty business-day extension to the investigation stage. The new issue date for the Draft Compliance Review Report of this case will be July 14th, 2017.

On July 14, 2017, MICI concluded the investigation. The Draft Compliance Review Report was distributed to the Parties for their review and comments, which were sent to MICI before the due date on August 14, 2017. MICI finalized the Compliance Review Report and then submitted it to the Board of Directors for their consideration under standard procedure. 

On February of 2018, MICI published its Compliance Review Report (MICI-BO-2014-079) for “La Paz Storm Drainage Program II”. On the Report, MICI’s found:

1. That the Project environmental and social assessments did not identify potential impacts to businesses in the Project’s area, and thus lacked mitigation measures for those impacts, as required by Directive B.6 of OP-703 of the Bank;
2. That the Project did not carry out adequate consultations, in accordance with requirements of Directive B.6 of OP-703 of the Bank.

Based on its findings, MICI proposed three recommendations to improve Bank practices, which were approved by the Board of Executive Directors on February 14, 2018.

The three recommendations are:

1. That the Bank explain what actions may be taken in cases where it finds that the breach of its operational policies has caused damage.

2. That the Bank report how its work on strengthening public consultations is impacting specific projects.

3. That the Bank informs about the existence of the MICI at the Project level.