The Executive Directors approved a major new Access to Information policy in November 2009; the policy took effect on July 1, 2010. Together with the seven internal reforms implemented in fiscal 2010, the new policy positions the World Bank as a transparency leader among international financial institutions. It also allows better public oversight of Bank operations.
The policy greatly increases public access to Bank information. The old policy disclosed an established set of information and did not allow the public to appeal disclosure decisions. The new policy provides that any information in the Bank’s possession, unless covered by a well-defined list of exceptions, is publicly available and grants the public the right to appeal Bank decisions to deny disclosure. Information never before available to the public, including Board transcripts and minutes of Board Committee meetings, is now publicly disclosed, with the Bank routinely posting as much information as possible on its external Web site. Any information not covered by the exceptions list is available upon request. Certain information on the exceptions list may be eligible for declassification after 5, 10, or 20 years, depending on the document type.
In the spirit of transparency and accessibility, the preparation for and process of implementing the new policy was itself an open and collaborative effort that involved both internal and external consultations. From the start, civil society groups were invited to participate in various stages of policy development and implementation. They provided valuable inputs into the design of the policy, offered advice during the preparation stage, and helped the Bank test the new public request system in the months leading up to implementation. (Read more.)
The World Bank Group announced a new policy of open data access in April 2010, reflecting the institution’s ongoing effort to increase access to information. A new Web site—data.worldbank.org—offers free access to more than 2,000 financial, business, health, economic, and human development statistics for over 200 economies spanning up to 50 years, most of which had previously been available only to subscribers. Anyone with an Internet connection can now easily find, download, manipulate, visualize, use, and redistribute the data.
Key development indicators from the World Development Indicators are presented in English, Spanish, French, and Arabic, and indicators drawn from Africa Development Indicators, Doing Business, Global Development Finance, and the Global Economic Monitor, are also available. New tools, including a function to search the datasets, and a centralized listing of the publicly accessible data resources of the World Bank, help visitors quickly find and use indicators and other valuable datasets.
Many of the indicators are also available to software and Web site developers through an application programming interface so they can access World Bank datasets directly to feed data to Web-based and mobile applications. The intention is to promote and encourage the use of data to understand development issues and problems—and help to solve them.
The response to the Open Data Initiative has been enthusiastic. The World Bank has been cited as a leading example of public access to information. And as demand grows, the Bank will continue to expand and improve the databases and look for new ways to make them available to the world.
The World Bank’s environmental and social safeguard policies are a cornerstone of its support of sustainable poverty reduction. These policies seek to prevent and mitigate undue harm done to people and their environments as part of the development process.
The Bank assessed the potential impacts associated with a number of major infrastructure projects this fiscal year. It conducted safeguard diagnostic reviews to enable the use of country systems in Botswana, Croatia, Mauritius, the Philippines, and Poland, and it continued to support the pilot program for the use of country systems for environmental and social safeguards, with new operations approved for Bhutan, India, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Morocco, and two in South Africa.
More than 950 people participated in 38 safeguard training sessions offered by the Bank’s Operations Policy and Country Services unit in fiscal 2010. The regions offered additional training, both at headquarters and in the field. The Bank also took steps to enhance the safeguard capacity and skills of public and private sector counterpart organizations working with the Bank on a range of projects.
The heads of leading multilateral development banks signed an agreement in April 2010 to cross-debar firms and individuals found to have engaged in wrongdoing. The new agreement includes the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank Group, and the World Bank Group. Under the agreement, entities debarred by one multilateral development bank may be sanctioned for the same misconduct by the other participating development banks. The agreement closes a loophole that had previously allowed a firm debarred by one multilateral development bank to continue obtaining contracts with another.
Remuneration of Executive Management, Executive Directors, and Staff
To recruit and retain highly qualified staff, the World Bank Group has developed a compensation and benefits system designed to be internationally competitive, to reward performance, and to take into account the special needs of a multinational and largely expatriate staff. The World Bank Group's staff salary structure is reviewed annually by the Executive Directors and, if warranted, is adjusted on the basis of a comparison with salaries paid by private financial and industrial firms and by representative public sector agencies in the U.S. market. After analyses of updated comparator salaries, the Board approved an average increase in the salary structure of 1.5 percent for fiscal 2010, effective July 1, 2009, for Washington, D.C–based staff.
The annual salaries (net of taxes) of executive management of the World Bank Group were as follows for the period July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010:
Executive management: Annual salaries (net of taxes, US$)
Name and position
Annual net salarya
Annual World Bank Group contribution to pension planb
Annual World Bank Group contribution to other benefitsc
Robert B. Zoellick, Presidentd
441,980
91,237
193,593
Ngozi N. Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director
351,740
133,962
i
79,493
Graeme Wheeler, Managing Director
347,050
132,176
i
89,886
Vincenzo La Via, Chief Financial Officer
347,050
71,641
78,433
Lars Thunell, Executive Vice President, IFC
347,050
71,641
78,433
Juan Jose Daboub, Managing Directore
347,050
71,641
78,433
Izumi Kobayashi, Executive Vice President, MIGAf
340,953
70,832
77,055
Anne-Marie Leroy, Senior VP and World Bank Group General Counselg
a. The salaries are set on a net-of-tax basis as the World Bank Group staff, other than U.S. citizens, are usually not required to pay income taxes on their WBG compensation.
b. Approximate World Bank Group contribution made to the Staff Retirement Plan and deferred compensation plans from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010.
c. Other benefits includes annual leave, medical, life and disability Insurance, accrued termination benefits, and other nonsalary benefits.
d. Mr. Zoellick as part of World Bank Group Contribution to Other Benefits receives a supplemental allowance of $79,120 to cover expenses. As a U.S. citizen, Mr. Zoellick's salary is taxable and he receives a tax allowance to cover the estimated taxes on his World Bank salary and benefits. In addition to his pension, Mr. Zoellick receives a supplemental retirement benefit equal to 5 percent of his annual salary.
e. Mr. Daboub and Mr. Muasher terminated, effective June 30, 2010.
f. Izumi Kobayashi's salary was adjusted to $344,950, effective November 24, 2009.
g. Anne-Marie Leroy's salary was adjusted to $345,870, effective March 9, 2010.
h. These figures do not apply to the U.S. Executive Director and Alternate Executive Director, who are subject to U.S. congressional salary caps.
i. Pension benefits for these staff members are based on Staff Retirement Plan (SRP) provisions in effect prior to April 15, 1998.
During the period July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010, the salary structure (net of tax) and average net salaries/benefits for World Bank Group staff was as follows:
Staff salary structure (Washington, D.C.)
Grades
Representative job titles
Minimum ($)
Market reference ($)
Maximum ($)
Staff at grade level (%)
Average salary/grade
Average benefitsa
GA
Office Assistant
24,420
31,740
41,250
5.8
34,640
18,605
GB
Team Assistant, Information Technician
31,190
40,550
56,770
0.8
41,277
22,170
GC
Program Assistant, Information Assistant
38,520
50,090
70,130
10.4
52,056
27,959
GD
Senior Program Assistant, Information Specialist, Budget Assistant
44,530
57,880
81,040
8.5
63,683
34,204
GE
Analyst
58,100
75,520
105,720
9.5
74,384
39,952
GF
Professional
76,950
100,030
140,050
18.4
95,323
51,198
GG
Senior Professional
104,050
135,270
189,370
31.3
131,476
70,616
GH
Manager, Lead Professional
143,600
186,700
241,260
17.7
181,374
97,416
GI
Director, Senior Advisor
190,390
249,070
285,580
2.8
238,283
127,982
GJ
Vice President
256,760
287,570
322,000
0.4
286,638
153,953
GK
Managing Director, Executive Vice President
282,010
319,810
351,740
0.1
338,403
166,329
Note: Because World Bank Group staff, other than U.S. citizens, usually are not required to pay income taxes on their World Bank Group compensation, the salaries are set on a net-of-tax basis, which is generally equivalent to the after-tax take-home pay of the employees of the comparator organizations and firms from which WBG salaries are derived. Only a relatively small minority of staff will reach the upper third of the salary range.
a. Average benefits include medical, life, and disability insurance; accrued termination benefits; and other nonsalary benefits.
In the spirit and interest of good organizational governance and transparency, summaries of the financial and outside interest disclosures filed by the Bank Group's Senior Management Team and Vice Presidents are made public. The link below will take you to the Public Financial Disclosure home page, from which you may view these documents.
The World Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency (INT) investigates allegations of fraud and corruption in operations that are financed by the World Bank Group and any related staff involvement in misconduct. It refers its findings to the appropriate decision makers—Regional Operations, the President, and the Bank’s Sanctions Board for project-related cases or the Human Resources Services Vice President for staff cases—for further action.
These investigations yielded important results this fiscal year. Following a corruption investigation in a project in Russian Federation, in July 2009 Siemens AG agreed to pay $100 million over the next 15 years to support anticorruption work, a debarment of up to four years for Siemens’ Russian subsidiary, and a voluntary two-year shut-out from bidding on Bank business for Siemens AG and all of its consolidated subsidiaries and affiliates. The agreement also banned the subsidiary from bidding on Bank work for four years. In April 2010 the Bank Group debarred Macmillan Ltd. for six years following the company’s admission of bribery payments in a Trust Fund–supported education project in southern Sudan.
In April 2010 the heads of five multilateral development banks—the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank Group, and the World Bank Group—signed an agreement to cross-debar firms and individuals found to have engaged in wrongdoing in a development project financed by any of the signatories. The agreement sends a clear message on anticorruption: steal or cheat from one, get punished by all.
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