Letter from NGO Forum on ADB to ADB Pres. Chino

16 November 2004

President Tadao Chino
Asian Development Bank
P.O. Box 789
0980 Manila, Philippines

Dear President Chino,

We have learned that the successful approval of the ADB’s new Accountability Mechanism is being followed by the development of procedures for the Office of Special Project Facilitator (OSPF), the Compliance Review Panel (CRP), and the Board Compliance Review Committee (BCRC).

While we endorse the ADB’s efforts to ensure the new mechanism is in place by its stated deadline of November 2003, we would like to raise our strong concern about the lack of transparency during this procedure development/preparatory process.

As you are aware, civil society has been involved in the review of the accountability mechanism for the past two years. During this time, we have offered unique perspectives which have ranged from a grass-roots view to comparative analysis of mechanisms in other MDBs. No doubt our understanding of this issue has increased as a result of our active engagement with this process. We believe we can make many positive contributions during the post-approval, preparatory stage of the new mechanism as well.

Specifically, we would like to request information with regards to the following:

1. Development of Procedures: Who is developing these procedures at the ADB?
2. Selection of SPF and staff: Who is responsible for this selection? What process will be followed?
3. Selection of Panel members and staff: Who is responsible for this selection? What process will be followed?

We also urge you to :

1. Constitute a multi-stakeholder committee for the selection of the CRP and SPF. This has been a consistent civil society demand. Indeed, other IFIs such as JBIC and IFC have selected their personnel for their respective accountability mechanisms through such committees. JBIC is currently in the process of selecting members for their accountability mechanism through a multi-stakeholder committee and the IFC Ombudsman was selected similarly.
2. Invite public comment on the draft procedures developed for the OSPF and CRP. We urge the ADB to invite public comment on the draft procedures as soon as these are prepared.
3. SPF and CRP should select/hire their own staff. Experiences at the World Bank Inspection Panel office suggest that staff members hired before the first Panel took office in 1993 were viewed with a degree of suspicion by the incoming Panel members. We believe the ADB Panel members and the SPF should have input in the hiring of their staff once they come on board so as to avoid any notion of mistrust. For the consideration of SPF and CRP staff we urge you to put forward ADB staff that have been engaged in the old Inspection Mechanism, especially on the BIC. We believe that previous staff of the old Inspection Mechanism will have valuable lessons to contribute to the new process.

We hope our suggestions will receive due consideration. We shall await your response in this regard.

Sincerely,

Sameer Dossani
Executive Director
NGO Forum on ADB

Rm. 402, 107-A Kalayaan Ave.
Diliman, Quezon City, 1101
Tel: 433 1256
Fax: 9297987
Email:
Web: www.forum-adb.org