Enhancing the transparency and effectiveness of the Inspection Panel process of the World Bank

The Secretary of the Treasury shall direct the United States Executive Directors at the World Bank to seek to ensure that World Bank Procedure 17.55, which establishes the operating procedures of Management with regard to the Inspection Panel, provides that Management prepare and make available to the public semiannual progress reports describing implementation of Action Plans considered by the Board; allow and receive comments from Requesters and other Affected Parties for two months after the date of disclosure of the progress reports; post these comments on World Bank and Inspection Panel websites (after receiving permission from the requestors to post with or without attribution); submit the reports to the Board with any comments received; and make public the substance of any actions taken by the Board after Board consideration of the reports. The Secretary of the Treasury shall direct the United States Executive Directors at the World Bank to continue to promote the independence and effectiveness of the Inspection Panel, including by seeking to ensure the availability of, and access by claimants to, the Inspection Panel for projects supported by World Bank resources. The Secretary of the Treasury shall direct the United States Executive Directors at the World Bank to request an evaluation by the Independent Evaluation Group on the use of country environmental and social safeguard systems to determine the degree to which, in practice, the use of such systems provides the same level of protection at the project level as do the policies and procedures of the World Bank. In this section, the term “World Bank” means the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association.