The World Bank debarred a consultant from Vanuatu and his affiliated companies Monday for a year and a half for a fraudulent practice connected to a project in Vanuatu.
Joshua Chalapan Nari and his controlled affiliates are ineligible to participate in projects and operations financed by the World Bank Group during the eighteen-month debarment.
According to the World Bank, Nari misrepresented in his project output verification reports from 2016 through 2020. He said he had conducted all the required underlying verifications, per the terms of his contract, when he hadn’t done so. This is a fraudulent practice under the World Bank’s 2011 Guidelines for Selection and Employment of Consultants under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits & Grants.
The $4.7 million World Bank-funded project was designed to scale up access to electricity services for rural households, aid posts, and community halls located in dispersed off-grid areas in Vanuatu.
Vanuatu is an island nation in the South Pacific with a population of around 300,000.
Nari acknowledged responsibility for the underlying sanctionable practice and agreed to meet specified compliance conditions as a condition for release from debarment, the World Bank said.
As part of the settlement, Nari agreed to take corporate ethics training and committed that any firms or other individuals that he controls will implement a corporate ethics training program.
Nari also committed to continue fully cooperating with the World Bank Group Integrity Vice Presidency, the World Bank said.
The debarment qualifies for cross-debarment by the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the African Development Bank.
A list of all World Bank debarred entities and individuals is here.
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