Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) is now being questioned after a string of corruption and abuse of office allegations from his own staff spilled into the open.
The board of governors of the 55-year-old institution met on Tuesday to discuss whether to bring in an outside investigator into the allegations concerning the Nigerian's conduct just days after an initial internal inquiry that cleared him. Its ethics committee carried out an investigation and declared that Adesina was "totally exonerated of all allegations made against him" and recommended that the board of governors adopt its conclusions. In early May, the board's chair - Ivorian Planning Minister Nialé Kaba - wrote to shareholders that the African finance ministers who supervise the bank's management intended to clear Adesina. The prospects of an independent probe comes only three months before he was expected to be re-elected unopposed at its annual general meeting in August.
The 20-point allegations of "impunity and bad governance" from unnamed employees have exposed a rift between Adesina and ordinary staff. The "Group of Concerned Staff Members of the AfDB" claimed that Adesina has used the bank's resources for self-promotion and personal gain while also paying out huge but undeserved severance packages to staff who resigned mysteriously, and favouring his fellow Nigerians. The whistleblowers have accused Adesina of major conflicts of interest in his dealings with current and former employees, unethical conduct and preferential treatment.
The BBC has obtained the original whistleblowers' email from January 2020, sent to two executive directors of the bank, Yano Takuji (Japanese) and Steven Dowd (American), and the British director for its Integrity and Anti-Corruption Department Alan Bacarese. In an April update circulated to a wider pool of senior managers, the whistleblowers said the Ethics Committee headed by Takuji failed to examine their concerns.
Adesina is an eloquent advocate for Africa and the bank and a good fundraiser, but his detractors say he promises more than he delivers.
"His administration hasn't always been fantastic and perhaps he has run roughshod over some people. Maybe the practices haven't always been what they should be, and the feeling is that the board just whitewashed the investigation," the insider said.
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