The independent panel of experts set up to review the “not-guilty” recommendations pn the African Development Bank President AfDB, Dr Akinwumi Adesina by the Bank’s standing Ethics Committee has again cleared him of the ethics violation allegations.
A final report sent to the bank by the panel of independent experts, chaired by former Irish President, Mary Robinson, explained that the panel’s investigation considered all allegations by the whistleblowers and the President’s response to the allegations and conclude that the ethics committee report was well detailed and thoroughly prepared.
The panel therefore agreed with the committee in its findings in respect of all the allegations against the President and finds that they were properly considered and dismissed by the committee,”.
The panel also note that the whistleblowers complaint was wrongly publicized.
According to the report, “The Panel is mindful of the fact that ‘absence of evidence is not evidence of absence’. At the same time, it appears to us to be an undue burden to expect a holder of high office in an international organization, to prove negative, in the absence of sufficient grounds. An attorney writing on behalf of the President, also argues quite correctly in our view, that a distinction should be drawn between alleged institutional failures at the Bank and the conduct of the president”
The report also explains that the panel did not attach any value to the Dissociation Note in it deliberations adding that The President has also as part of his detailed submission enclosed eighteen annexes, which he believed might be relevant and necessary to make his case and assert his right to due process. The Panel explained at the outset, that it was dividing its Report into two parts.
In the first part, it considered the complaints provided to the Ethics Committee by the whistle-blowers and found that they had been properly considered and dismissed by the Committee. In its second part, it considered, in the interests of due process, the responses of the President.
While the Committee was not required to consider and did not, in fact, consider, the President’s responses, it was in the
interests of fairness and of due process that the Panel is required to do so. As it has explained, the Panel has not passed judgment on the President’s evidence.
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It has also borne in mind that the whistle-blowers’ complaints were wrongly publicized and that fairness required that the President
be heard. It has considered the President’s submissions on their face and finds them consistent with
his innocence and to be persuasive.
As a practical matter the panel suggests the bank provide strong support around its president to avoid this type of scenario. The former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development was accused of poor governance, impunity, personal enrichment and favouritism.
The United States which holds almost twenty percent equity in the AfDB is yet to react to the latest development. The Trump administration, had through its Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin requested the fresh probe. This perhaps clears the way for Dr Adesina to contest for a second term.
(Edited By Sola Jaiyesimi)
