13 July 2005
Compliance Review Panel finds violations of 7 Asian Development Bank policies in Southern Transport Development Project. Recommends 19 courses of action.
On July 12, 2005, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Board of Directors approved the recommendations put forward by the ADB Compliance Review Panel (CRP) in its Final Report on the Sri Lanka Southern Transport Development Project (STDP) compliance review request. This is the first compliance review (inspection) case that has been considered by the Board under the new ADB Accountability Mechanism approved in May 2003. The STDP affectees have been trying to get their grievances addressed by the ADB since 2001, but their earlier inspection requests were denied by the Board.
Key recommendations of the Review Panel
The key CRP recommendations approved by the Board in response to the current request include directing the ADB Management to:
- require that all affected persons be fully compensated by actual payment before they are removed from their homes,
- require immediate provision of utilities and infrastructure to resettlement sites,
- assist in the income restoration program and the establishment of household benchmarks,
- help establish well-staffed monitoring of resettlement activities by an independent institution, and
- assess the environmental impacts of the Galle access road and any stretch of the ADB section on the Final Trace different from the Combined Trace.
Key findings of the Panel's investigation
The CRP based the above recommendations on its findings that there have been “at some time during the Project from project processing to its implementation, lapses of compliance with (seven) ADB policies and operational procedures.” Key findings of the CRP that resulted in violation of ADB procedures were:
- insufficient environmental impact assessments,
- inadequate public information and participation in the environmental review process,
- absence of gender analysis, even though the Project had a significant impact on women, and
- significant shifts of the road trace were done without public participation (problematic since Board approval of the project).
Next steps for the ADB
ADB Management is directed to provide to the CRP and the Board a course of action with timelines on implementation of these measures, by August 31, 2005. The specific request of affected communities to suspend loan disbursements until the project is brought into compliance with ADB Policies and Procedures was not granted.
Additional Resources
Final Report of the Compliance Review Panel, June 22, 2005 (Acrobat pdf 2.17 MB) (CRP website)
Board decision on the CRP Final Report, July 12, 2005 (Acrobat pdf 14 KB) (CRP website)
CRP's record of milestones on STDP (Acrobat pdf 29 KB) (CRP website)
ADB Office of the Special Project Facilitator Web page (ADB website)
BIC STDP webpage (BIC website)