AfDB panel to review report on Adesina

The bureau of board of governors of the African Development Bank Group has constituted a panel to conduct an independent review of the report of the ethics committee on the allegations made by whistleblowers against the president of the bank, Akinwumi Adesina.

A communiqué released by the bureau on Wednesday said that it agreed on the terms of reference for the independent review at its meetings of June 18 and July 1, 2020.

It, thereafter, selected three persons—Mary Robinson, Hassan B. Jallow and Leonard F. McCarthy—to constitute “a High-Level Panel of Independent Experts to conduct the said review”.

The communiqué, signed by Niale Kaba, Governor for Côte d’Ivoire, noted that the bureau expresses its utmost trust and confidence in the panel’s ability to successfully carry out the assignment and reaffirms its commitment to fully assisting the panel in the process.

This newspaper’s analysis of the bank’s ethics committee’s report and its code of conduct for its executive directors, including its president, revealed that the ethics committee should not have referred the matter to the board in the first place.