As a result of external pressure, including a resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe encouraging the Bank to consider an appeals/compliance mechanism, a call from the G7 countries to the international financial institutions to either improve or establish such mechanisms, and pressure from NGOs, EBRD President Lemierre committed the Bank to establishing an Independent Investigation Mechanism at the EBRD’s 2002 Annual Meeting in Bucharest.
Following a public comment period which ended January 31, 2003, a new Independent Recourse Mechanism was approved on April 29, 2003.
Structure
The IRM is run by the Chief Compliance Officer and draw upon a roster of experts selected by an internal selection committee and appointed by the President. If compliance review is recommended, an independent expert assesses the complaint. IRM has three experts appointed for a three-year term.
The IRM will have two components: a compliance review function focusing on issues of non-compliance by the Bank with specified EBRD policies; and a problem-solving function to be used where complaints or grievances can benefit from problem-solving techniques which try to resolve the underlying issues raised in the complaints.