CRAMER: HOUSE BRINGS ACCOUNTABILITY TO WORLD BANK

Date: January 17, 2018

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Kevin Cramer joined a majority of members of the U.S. House of Representatives to pass H.R. 3326, the World Bank Accountability Act. The act forces management improvement and combats corruption at the World Bank International Development Association (IDA). The IDA offers concessional loans, on better than market terms, to the world's poorest nations.

A recent House Financial Services Committee investigation into the World Bank has found that the IDA has fallen short of its anti-poverty goals in the nations eligible for IDA assistance, including: emphasizing loan volume over identifiable poverty reduction results; lending to corrupt regimes who abuse funding opportunities and violate human rights; and conducting insufficient audits of corruption.

'We owe it to American taxpayers to know how the World Bank is spending their money,' said Cramer. 'The IDA should not be supporting rogue nations like North Korea which flaunt international law and United Nations Security Council Resolutions. These reforms ensure the IDA lives up to its ideals and helps the world's poorest nations fund projects which help alleviate poverty.'

Specifically, the bill would:

• Withhold 15 percent of appropriations for The World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) until the Secretary of the Treasury reports to Congress that these shortcomings are addressed
• Allow an additional 15 percent of appropriations to be withheld if the Secretary cannot confirm that the Bank has taken efforts to: support property rights, the due process of law, and economic freedom; ensure assistance does not go to state sponsors of terrorism; conduct randomized forensic audits of projects
• Reduce overall appropriations to the requested FY18 budget levels.

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