European Development Bank debars Lahmeyer

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will not award German engineering firm Lahmeyer International any contracts until further notice. This was announced by the Bank on its website at the end of February. The bank adopts a decision by the World Bank, which debarred Lahmeyer for seven years at the end of 2006 due to corruption in connection with a dam project in Lesotho (see D+C/E+Z 12/2006, p. 445). According to Henning Nothdurft, managing director of Lahmeyer, the EBRD came to its decision after Lahmeyer had been shortlisted for a contract. In the course of the tender process, the company outlined to the bank which steps it had taken to prevent corruption since the World Bank debarment. Further measures were then agreed upon with the bank, which Lahmeyer must put into action before it can participate in EBRD tendering again. The company expects this will be the case in the second half of the year.

The organisation Transparency International calls the EBRD decision “a welcome move towards consistency among the multilateral development banks’ (MDBs) anti-corruption efforts.” It is the first time that a development bank has blacklisted a company from contracts based on information from another bank. In September 2006, regional development banks and the World Bank had agreed to cooperate more closely in the fight against corruption in future. (ell)