Former Inter-American Development Bank cabal bilking IFAD for 'fake' consultancy work

 ROME – Consultants hired by International Fund for Agricultural Development managing director Carola Alvarez at three or four times the normal rate of pay at the UN agency as “Strategy advisors” are doing literally nothing to earn their sky-high fees in a scam wasting donor fees reminiscent of a graft scandal at the Inter-American Development Bank, sources from the IDB say. 

 At least four self-styled consultants from Alvarez’s native Argentina, President Alvaro Lario’s homeland Spain and other countries are enoying the hefty fees from IFAD from a minimum of dlrs 60,000 for three months spent doing nothing while IFAD staff do the work the consultants were contracted to do. All the consultants formerly worked with Ms Alvarez at the IDB where she was let go following a probe into consultancies being issued in return for Ms Alvarez allegedly receiving a portion of the fee as a commission, the IDB sources familiar with the investigation at IDB added. Together the fees bilked by the cabal of consultants 'hired' by Ms Alvarez cost IFAD an estimated minimum of half a million dollars, donor money that should instead have gone to help the rural poor. 

 It is not known whether the former IDB consultants also paid IFAD executives a "commission" in return for arranging their lucrative contracts but the possibility is under investigation by IFAD’s ethics office, which already is investigating Ms Alvarez for alleged abuse of authority and power following a rash of complaints by staff members.

Ms Alvarez herself told members of her team that at IDB it was a common practise “that consultants would thank the managers by giving them a portion of the consultancy fee,” one well placed IDB source told the Insider. “Everybody at IDB knew. It was common knowledge, If it was not in return for money it was in return for influence.”

“These consultants Alvarez has hired are not only getting an outrageous amount of money they are aren’t doing the work. Ifad staff are doing it for them. They are just taking the money.”

 Waste of donor funds in return for favours or bribes is common at IFAD where executives frequently have hired big firms for big bucks, IFAD watchers say. The donor funds are ued by IFAD senior management to pay favours to help their careers and the companies do nothing to earn their fees.

When challenged by staff why consultants can enrich themselves with money earmarked by overnments to help small farmers, Ms Alvarez merely says “I asked permission from the vice president and I have a waiver from the president.”

 When the work is not delivered by the corrupt consultants enjoying the donor money somewhere else in the world, Ms Alvarez merely shrugs that “the work is not important.”

 It remains to be seen whether Lario will take action to rein in the waste of money by the gang of former IDB cronies, IFAD watchers say.

 Despite its lofty principles, financial malfeasance at IFAD goes back at least to the dubious reign of the late Nigerian President Kanayo Nwanze, who leaned on auditors to conceal his sky-high expenses and luxurious lifestyle at the expense of donors, another scandal disclosed by the Italian Insider and subsequently followed up on by numerous publications such as The Economist at this link https://www.economist.com/international/2011/01/27/high-life