Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

Azerbaijan has made progress in preventing corruption in several sectors, such as public services delivery, traffic police and public education, and reforms have started in customs and business licencing. However, serious and complex corruption challenges have yet to be tackled, says a new OECD report.

A meeting led by the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) reviewed the implementation performance of projects and programs financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank Group. Project implementation challenges were discussed, and measures agreed to streamline processes and improve performance and effectiveness.

Plans to prolong a 10% increase in the EU contribution towards project costs in Greece until 30 June of the year following the end of its economic adjustment programme were approved by Regional Development Committee MEPs on Tuesday. MEPs also approved a special provision whereby the EU would pay up to 85% of project costs in Cyprus until the current programming period ends in 2020.

Ireland still needs to make substantial progress on key recommendations issued three times since March 2007 by the OECD Working Group on Bribery with regard to improving its domestic criminal law as it applies to bribery by Irish individuals and companies in their international business transactions. As a party to the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, Ireland is subject to systematic monitoring by the Working Group on how well it implements the requirements of the Convention. The Working Group comprises the 41 parties to the Convention.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the World Bank Group will co-host the first Transfer Pricing Regional Meeting for ECOWAS Member States in Abuja, Nigeria from October 11-13, under the European funded Improved Business and Investment Climate in West Africa Project.

Following discussions held between IMF staff and the Ivoirian authorities during the 2016 Annual Meetings in Washington, a staff-level agreement was reached on a three-year program that could be supported by two arrangements under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for SDR 487.8 million (about USD 674.3 million) or 75 percent of Côte d’Ivoire’s quota in the IMF.

Ukraine has made considerable progress in the area of anti-corruption reform but faces significant challenges to implement some important tools for combating corruption, according to a recent OECD report.

The World Bank Group announced the debarment of AC Boilers S.p.A., and its two affiliates (AC Boilers Egypt S.A.E., and Centro Combustione Ambiente) for a period of 9 months, followed by an additional 15-month period of conditional non-debarment. Under conditional non-debarment, a company may continue working on World Bank projects as long as certain compliance conditions are met within a specified period of time. Failure to comply with these conditions results in automatic debarment.

The Budgets Committee demanded more funds, in a vote on Tuesday, to help young people into jobs, to boost economic growth and assist third countries with a view to mitigating the migration crisis. MEPs had earlier reversed all the cuts proposed by the Council to the draft 2017 EU budget. Part of the additional funds are expected to be financed via new appropriations to be obtained through the ongoing mid-term revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

Representatives from Turkmenistan’s financial institutions and law-enforcement bodies concluded on 7 October in Bucharest a study visit, organized by the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat, focused on mechanisms to counter corruption and money laundering.