A/HRC/45/28 possible referral to national law enforcement authorities. 76 Several international financial institutions make public their debarment decisions. For instance, the World Bank keeps an updated list of all debarred companies on its website, and, similarly to EBRD, publishes the full decisions of its sanctions board.77 In 2010, AfDB, ADB, EBRD, IDB and the World Bank agreed to mutually enforce debarment decisions with respect to firms and individuals found guilty of fraud or corruption in projects that they financed, another welcome collaborative effort by international financial institutions in the global fight against corruption. 78 The Independent Expert looks forward to further international financial institutions participating in this agreement. 64. It must be noted that international financial institutions do not have criminal law enforcement powers in relation to alleged corruption. Through the publication of debarment decisions by international financial institutions, national law enforcement can proactively decide to investigate and prosecute instances of fraud and corruption. The Independent Expert is of the opinion that international financial institutions should, in fact, as a principle, automatically flag such instances directly to the national authorities. In this regard, he supports the recommendation of civil society that a revised European Union antifraud policy should make it compulsory for the European Investment Bank to refer suspected prohibited conducts directly to national authorities and prosecutors, even when outside of the European Union.79 In the event that these authorities show unwillingness to review the cases brought before them, the international financial institutions should put pressure on the authorities to take the required action. Such action towards achieving accountability at the local level is key in the global fight against corruption. 3. Situation linked to the COVID-19 crisis 65. The Independent Expert deems it important to stress that sustained attention to the fight against corruption should by no means be lessened during the COVID-19 outbreak. As international financial institutions are making available colossal sums of money to States on an emergency basis to respond to the COVID-19 crisis (as discussed in the previous section), there is a heightened risk that the funds allocated may be misused or stolen through criminal schemes, with potentially devastating consequences for the populations in need, especially the most vulnerable groups. 66. In this regard, the Independent Expert joins the call made in April 2020 by three civil society organizations to IMF to make sure that the funds that it is providing to its member countries during this crisis are actually used to save lives, safeguard public health and support livelihoods. To this end, they highlight the need for IMF to establish basic measures to ensure that such funds are spent in a transparent and accountable manner and to reduce the risks of misuse and corruption. They identify four areas: articulation and demonstration of IMF commitment to anti-corruption; transparency in public procurement; audits by internal audit bodies and third parties; and implementation of existing anticorruption and anti-money laundering frameworks. 80 The Independent Expert notes the response of the IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, in an interview with Transparency International in June 2020, in which she emphasized that the message of IMF to Governments receiving emergency funds had been to uphold accountability, and that 76 77 78 79 80 Jenkins , “U4 Expert Answer: multilateral development banks’ integrity management systems”, pp. 2 and 4–5. See www.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/procurement/debarred-firms. See www.adb.org/sites/default/files/institutional-document/32774/files/cross-debarmentagreement.pdf. Xavier Sol, Is the EIB Up to the Task in Tackling Fraud and Corruption? (Brussels, Counter Balance, 2019), p. 49; see p. 58 for the response of the European Investment Bank to this recommendation. Letter dated 8 April 2020 from Transparency International, Human Rights Watch and Global Witness addressed to the IMF Executive Board, regarding the urgent need for anti-corruption measures in the IMF response to the COVID-19 crisis. Available at https://images.transparencycdn.org/images/TI_HRW_GW_Letter_IMF_COVID19_Emergency_Fund ing.pdf. 17