Study emphasizes World Bank's role in promoting good governance

In recent years the World Bank (WB) contributed in about 90 countries around the world, including Moldova, to strengthening good governance, assisting in financial management and improving investment rules, according to a study published last week by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), Info-Prim Neo reports. The study evaluates the efficiency of the Bank's relevant efforts during 2008-2010, which represented the first implementation phase of the WB Group's Governance and Anti-corruption Strategy (GAC). According to the authors, the evaluation aims to help enhance the Bank’s approach to governance and anticorruption and to improve its effectiveness in helping partner-countries develop capable and accountable states that create opportunities for the poor. *** The Republic of Moldova, alongside five other countries from around the world, served as a case study for the findings of the IEG evaluation report, findings which are also applicable to most of the countries where the WB carries out similar efforts. The report shows that the investment climate in several case study countries was constrained by public sector bottlenecks, which the Bank sought to help remove. For example, support was offered to Moldova to improve operations and management of public agencies, specifically by streamlining licensing and registration procedures and strengthening supreme audit agencies. Regarding Public Financial Management, Bank efforts in Moldova covered a wide array of issues, including efficiency of sector expenditure, budget preparation and budget execution, systems automation etc. “Strategically, support for country public financial management systems helped signal that the Bank was interested in more than protecting its own funds”, the report said. Further, given the importance of transparency for market entrants, the Bank’s advocacy of greater information disclosure proved important to the private sector. This included advocacy support for independent CSOs, freedom-of-information acts and efforts to support dissemination of laws, policies, and statutes, as well as encouragement of periodic, public reviews of existing commercial regulations, like more formal regulatory impact assessments in Moldova. At the same time, the study indicated that support for consultative mechanisms between the private sector and the government needed to be better calibrated to risks of capture, which is a form of corruption involving group interests. The report also showed that greater engagement with citizens and better coordination with sector initiatives enhanced the credibility of reforms in some cases, including Moldova. *** Started in 2007 by then WB chief Paul Wolfowitz, the GAC Strategy has come today to cover around 90 countries, three times the initial figure. Phase one of the plan earmarked a total of $119 million for GAC implementation. The Strategy is based on the idea that well-governed countries are better able to formulate growth-enhancing policies, deliver essential services to the poor, and regulate financial and product markets. The evaluation conducted by the IEG showed that the World Bank has improved its use of analytical tools, strengthening its overall project effectiveness, the report said. It has also relied more on the countries themselves, rather than its own systems, for managing aid resources, particularly in weaker states, helping them to become more self-reliant. But it also emphasized that the design and execution of the plan did not match the Bank’s own “ambitious vision.” For phase two of the Governance and Anti-corruption Strategy implementation, the evaluators recommended the Bank, among other, to request partner-countries to deliver tangible and time-bound improvements, to clarify its “zero tolerance” stance on corruption and improve operational controls, and to define roles and accountabilities for setting GAC strategic priorities.