The panel of independent experts led by Mary Robinson has cleared permanently on Monday, the president of the african development Bank (AFDB) Akinwumi Adesina of accusations of bad management by the committee of ethics internal, according to a report of which AFP has obtained a copy. “The panel agrees with the committee [ethics of the BAD] in its conclusions on the allegations against the president and believes that they have been properly examined and rejected by the committee,” says the panel in its report addressed to the minister ivorian planning and Development, Nialé Kaba, also the president of the office of the board of governors of the ADB.
This panel of three experts, led by former irish president Mary Robinson, had been charged in early July by the board of governors of the AFDB to an “independent review” on the work of the ethics committee of the institution, based in Abidjan, who had totally bleached the Nigerian Akinwumi Adesina multiple and embarrassing accusations made by “whistleblowers ” anonymous”.
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The race to lead the ADB re-launched
This soap opera the media-financial, which lasts from April, when the charges were leaked to the media, has destabilized the institution of pan-african development, and particularly its president, to be elected in 2015 and is the only candidate to his succession, scheduled for the end of August.
“The exoneration of Akinwumi Adesina of all of the allegations against him confirms his competence and his integrity at the head of the BAD […] Nigeria fully supported” for a second term, responded promptly, Tuesday, the nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari.
Akinwumi Adesina, 60 years old, former minister of Agriculture of Nigeria, and has from the beginning strongly defended, which rejects all the charges and claiming his ” innocence “.
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The panel, led by Mrs. Robinson, a lawyer by profession, who was also High Commissioner of united Nations for human rights from 1997 to 2002, has considered that the sixteen charges, which were Akinwumi Adesina had been properly investigated by the ethics committee of the ADB, in the light of the regulations and internal procedures of the Bank, considering, inter alia, that the whistleblowers had not provided evidence.
But Mrs. Robinson and the two other experts, the magistrate of the gambia, Hassan B. Jallow, and South African Leonard F. McCarthy, former vice-president for integrity at the world Bank, have not investigated the charges themselves, which was not their mandate.
The United States, the second shareholder of the ADB after Nigeria, had demanded the end of may the launch of an independent investigation into these allegations, calling into question the work of the ethics committee had cleared Akinwumi Adesina few weeks earlier. Before accepting the position of the board of governors of the ADB, in favour of a simple ” review “.
The whistleblowers, who presented themselves as ” employees concerned of the BAD “, accusing Akinwumi Adesina of personal enrichment, favoritism in many appointments of senior officials, in particular of fellow nigerians, to be appointed or promoted to persons suspected or convicted of fraud or corruption, or of their having given a comfortable severance benefits without sanction.
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A tarnished image
If the report of the panel of independent experts will obviously relieve Akinwumi Adesina, these accusations have, however, tarnished the image of the flamboyant president of the AFDB, whose re-election seemed assured at the beginning of the year, with the support of the african Union, and after a capital increase giant 115 billion in successful in October 2019.
internally, the management staff led by Akinwumi Adesina, has caused a stir in the past five years, leading to the departure of many top executives of the AFDB, one of the five major multilateral development banks in the world.
Created in 1964, it has 80 shareholder countries (54 african countries and 26 non-african, Europe, America and Asia). She is the only african institution rated triple-A by the rating agencies.
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