Lancet Claims World Bank Fraud

Lancet accuses the World Bank of fraudulent results, wasting money and lives (in the BBC).

A Lancet paper claims the bank faked figures, boosting the success of its malaria projects, and reneged on a pledge to invest $300-500m in Africa.

It also claims the bank funded obsolete treatments – against expert advice.

The bank has denied the allegations and says it is investing $500m to $1bn (£280m-£560m) over the next five years.

But it also admits it is not easy, and sometimes “not even possible”, to know exactly how much input from each donor goes into a specific activity…

“Our investigations suggest that the bank wasted money and lives on ineffective medicines.”

It accuses the bank of supplying India with an anti-malarial drug, called chloroquine, at a cost of $1.8m, which it says is unsuitable for the type of malaria seen there and against World Health Organisation guidelines.