Helping the Government of India improve the health of its population and achieve the health-related United Nations Millennium Development Goals has been an increasing priority for the World Bank. Since 1990, the Bank Group has approved 30 new health projects valued at more than US$4.4 billion for India, which was the Bank Group’s largest borrower in FY07. INT’s investigation of the Reproductive and Child Health Project (RCH I) in India, which closed in 2005, uncovered evidence of fraud and corruption that raised serious concerns about other Bank-financed projects in that sector. In response, the Bank Group and the Government of India agreed to a further review of the risks of fraud and corruption to the Bank Group’s health sector portfolio in India through a DIR of five health projects. Launched in mid-2006, the DIR India team involved over 75 INT staff, consultants, and subject matter experts. The large, multi-dimensional team operated from dedicated office space located near the Bank Group office in New Delhi, which was provided and refurbished specifically for the DIR by the India country office. Two key factors have made the India DIR a far more complex effort than other DIRs, leading to increased staffing and resources demands, and a longer completion time. First, the DIR India is simply larger in scale and scope than other DIRs conducted by INT. It involved the review of a far greater number of contracts and visits to many more field sites across a more expansive and challenging geographical territory. Second, the DIR India’s methodology was expanded to be more comprehensive in its approach. It incorporated more forensic accounting expertise and techniques, adopted more rigorous validation and quality assurance procedures, and substantially increased the amount of analytical tests and procedures.  READ THE COMPLETE INDIA DIR REPORT
 Â Volume 1
 Voume 2 PRESS RELEASE
 January 11, 2008 LEARN MORE ABOUT OTHER DIRs
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