On January 15, 2003, the IDB submitted a draft Information Disclosure Policy that was open for public comment over a three-month period. The Bank initially showed little commitment to taking input from the consultations seriously. The Bank originally scheduled a 45-day online comment period with virtually no prior notice, and had no plans to conduct face-to-face consultations with local groups. Following NGO pressure, the IDB extended the consultation period to 90 days. The IDB also agreed to post a summary of all comments from the consultations to its website.
A revised draft of the policy was subsequently prepared and posted for more public comment on August 4, 2003. BIC’s concerns about the consultation process and revised draft, as well as the IDB’s responses, are outlined in the following exchanges of letters:
- BIC Letter to President Enrique Iglesias outlining concerns with the planned policy consultation process, Bank Information Center, Feb. 3, 2003 (Acrobat pdf 463 KB)
- Response from IDB’s External Relations Office, Feb 27, 2003 (Acrobat pdf 326 KB)
- Letter from BIC to the IDB’s Board of Executive Directors regarding the revised IDB draft Disclosure of Information Policy, Bank Information Center, September 2, 2003 (Acrobat pdf 155KB)
- Letter from BIC to Mr. James Spinner of the IDB’s Legal Department regarding questions of clarification on the revised IDB draft Disclosure of Information Policy, Bank Information Center, September 2, 2003. (Acrobat pdf 142KB)
- IDB Legal Department’s Response, IDB, September 17, 2003 (Acrobat pdf 147KB). Mr. James Spinner, General Counsel for the IDB acknowledged the valuable input of the “various organizations that took the time to respond” to the IDB’s invitation for comment on its draft Disclosure Policy. Mr. Spinner also encouraged further outside input.
The New IDB policy on Information Disclosure was approved November 26, 2003 (Acrobat pdf 572KB) (IDB website). (Also available: Español)
first Annual Report on Implementation
In late May 2005, the Office of External Relations presented the Policy and Evaluation Committee of the IDB board with the first in a series of promised annual reports on the implementation of the revised Information Disclosure Policy. The report found no serious or systemic issues with the implementation of the policy during its first year of application, and in fact found considerable evidence that the correct application of the policy was lending support to the original premises behind its revision and adoption. On the positive side, the report also found, based on an analysis of hits to the IDB website, that Latin American and Caribbean users of the site were accessing more IDB information more frequently than before the new policy went into effect.
At the same time, the report found problems in the disclosure of operational project documents in certain countries, revealing specifically the failure to find the funds necessary to translate the documents into Portuguese for Brazil, and into French for Haiti. It also found a less than satisfactory rate for the timely disclosure of Project Completion Reports (PCRs), apparently because of case-specific disagreements between the IDB and its borrowing country counterparts on how to identify and deal with “confidential or sensitive” information in those reports. Finally, the report anticipated June 17, 2005 as the date from which units originating operational information would be held accountable for posting applicable documents directly to the IDB website, using a document management system called IDBDOCS.