Integrity Risk Specialist – Washington DC (1 Position)

  • Salary:
    negotiable / YEAR
  • Job type:
    FULL_TIME
  • Posted:
    4 days ago
  • Category:
    Ethics and Compliance
  • Deadline:
    13/11/2024

JOB DESCRIPTION

 

Description

Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty, increasing shared prosperity and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges.  Visit www.worldbank.org.

As part of the World Bank Group (WB), the Integrity Vice Presidency (INT) shares in the WB’s overall mission in alleviating poverty and achieving a shared and sustainable prosperity in client countries. INT’s fundamental role within the WB is to help detect, prevent, and deter fraud and corruption in the use of the WB’s financial resources, so that those resources are used effectively to benefit the poor people that they are intended to reach. In contributing to the WB’s overall mission, INT works closely with other stakeholders across the WB to:

Help detect, prevent, and deter fraud and corruption in WB-supported projects and activities by:

• professionally investigating allegations of fraud, corruption, collusion, coercion, or obstruction (the WB-sanctionable practices) in WB activities.
• seeking WB sanctions against firms and individuals that have engaged in any sanctionable practice.
• using information available to INT to help operational staff design and implement projects in ways that minimize fraud and corruption risks.
• working with the operational complex and other oversight and control units to help prevent fraud and corruption in operations by distilling lessons learned from investigative findings, developing effective risk identification and management tools, preparing remedial recommendations at the project and broader level, as appropriate, to address risks and issues identified through investigations, and ensuring timely disclosure to the Board of risks identified through ongoing or recently completed investigations that are of relevance to new operations presented to the Board for approval;
• conducting detailed fiduciary reviews of WB-supported projects with operations using forensic methodology to detect indicators of fraud or corruption and help address them as early as possible for better project outcomes; and
• working with sanctioned entities through the Integrity Compliance Office in supporting and monitoring their efforts to put in place appropriate integrity compliance programs to raise their integrity standards and reduce risks associated with their operations following their release from sanction.

Help client countries to fight fraud and corruption by:

• referring investigative findings to the investigative and enforcement authorities in those countries and working with authorities, as requested, to follow-up and act.
• supporting client country counterparts with their preventive and integrity risk mitigation efforts at the project and policy levels.
• helping build client country capacity in preventive and forensic techniques and
• collaborating in multilateral efforts to mitigate the risks of fraud and corruption in development activities.
• promoting integrity principles and the implementation of integrity compliance programs among entities sanctioned by the WB, and more broadly.

Enforce the highest standards of professional integrity and ethical behavior among WB staff and corporate vendors by:

• investigating allegations of staff misconduct involving significant fraud and corruption.
• investigating corporate vendors alleged to have engaged in sanctionable practices; and
• mining the lessons learned from those investigations to undertake training and outreach programs and strengthen the WB’s internal controls environment.

INT’s work contributes directly to achieving the shared prosperity/poverty reduction and sustainable planet-related mission and work of the WB. Reducing fraud and corruption in WB projects helps to ensure that WB funds are used for their intended purposes: to alleviate poverty and to increase prosperity and stability in our borrowing countries. Working with others in international development institutions, INT’s principal goal is to measurably minimize development assistance funds lost to fraud, corruption and abuse and increase the quality and results of development efforts. Results are reported in an annual report that contains aggregated data, outcomes, and generic descriptions of significant cases. To ensure its independence, INT’s Vice President (VP) reports directly to the World Bank President.

The Preventive Services Unit (PSU) is a non-investigative unit in INT that facilitates better integration of INT work and its findings in preventing integrity risks in World Bank operations. It also contributes to WB country and operational dialogue with WB clients and their agencies on integrity risk prevention and assist efforts to build their capacities to identify integrity risks and proactively mitigate them. The Headquarters (HQ)-based PSU Integrity Risk Specialist supports the PSU Regional Focal Points monitor the World Bank’s portfolio of proposed and active projects for potential integrity risks associated with INT cases and complaints, supports work to advise on addressing integrity concern flags where appropriate, assists the PSU Regional Focal Points in recommending mitigation measures to project teams, and supports PSU on advisory engagements related to integrity risk prevention throughout the operational cycle.

The PSU provides fraud and corruption risk assessment and mitigation advice in the context of INT complaints and cases and identified integrity risks as observed throughout the operations cycle and advises task teams and client counterparts during the preparation and implementation of substantial-to-high-risk projects. The HQ Integrity Risk Specialist in PSU also assists PSU Regional Focal Points to provide specialized briefings to teams in Operations and Country Management Units (CMUs); supports work to facilitate or advise on program level anti-corruption responses to systemic integrity risks; helps to assess and prepare responses to complaints and coordinate work with the Complaints Development Unit (CDU); contributes to INT’s risk analytics work program; supports PSU Regional Focal Points in the operational dialogue and outreach with WB counterparts on integrity risk mitigation, such as through PSU’s knowledge exchange and training with internal and external stakeholders and participation in WB operational missions; contributes to the development of knowledge products; helps consolidate and report on the Preventive programs in WB Regions and supports the coordination of the PSU work program.

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Duties and Accountabilities

Preventive Support 
Serve as PSU’s Integrity Risk Specialist for Integrity Risk Management and support PSU Program Coordination:
• Using data tools developed by INT, review the operations pipeline with the PSU Regional Focal Points to identify potential overlaps between proposed operations and recent or ongoing INT cases (“Volcker Trigger” operations), and finalize the PSU advice on Volcker Triggers for all WB Regions.
• Support the PSU review of project risks in ongoing or completed investigations, or at the request of Task Teams, to support PSU Regional Focal Points in interpreting “red flags” of risk and support PSU Regional Focal Points to provide risk mitigation advice; suggest integrity concern flags where appropriate.
• Support the PSU Team Lead (TL) in coordinating and consolidating materials from the PSU team in support of Regional and other briefing requirements.
• Help consolidate PSU advice on operational approaches to mitigate identified risks, as required.
• Provide ad hoc support to field- and HQ-based PSU staff depending on needs as they arise.
• Help the PSU TL coordinate PSU follow-up on selected submissions (i.e., complaints received by INT) and advice to project and country teams on actionable complaints (i.e., complaints deemed to be under INT’s jurisdiction) and operational risk management responses to investigations.
• Participate in complaint intake review meetings; support the PSU TL and staff to finalize PSU inputs to investigations Managers and other INT TLs on the relevance and prioritization of complaints.
• Join PSU meetings to coordinate dialogue with regional counterparts, WB clients, and anti-corruption authorities on preventive approaches to curb fraud and corruption risks within WB-financed operations, operationalize the WB anticorruption guidelines, and capacity building to support agreed preventive actions to address risks identified in completed investigations and documented in Final Investigative Reports (FIRs).
• Support the PSU team on the preparation of reports on the Preventive work program for internal reporting, PSU contributions to Final Investigative Reports (FIRs), tracking of key performance indicators (KPI), and other deliverables as requested by INT management, corporate units in HQ, and other Bank management.
Aspects of the above work will be in close collaboration with the Case Development Unit (CDU), Investigative teams, and other units in INT as appropriate.

Risk Analytics and Knowledge 
In furtherance of the objectives outline above, specifically, to work with the operational complex and other oversight and control units to help prevent fraud and corruption in operations by distilling lessons learned from investigative findings, developing effective risk identification and management tools, preparing remedial recommendations at the project and broader level, as appropriate, to address risks and issues identified through investigations,  as an important part of the role, you will be expected to contribute to the development and delivery of advisory and knowledge products for a variety of audiences. This work may include:

• Supporting the PSU TL and PSU teams to prepare for Portfolio Integrity Risk reviews and/or country-based integrity risk reviews based on INT information (from sources such as INT’s Case Management System – CMS, FIRs) and other sources to identify trends and sectoral risks in different contexts, including drawing on FSU work and insights, and supporting PSU Regional Focal Points in sharing these with relevant Global Practices/Verticals, Regions and other stakeholders in HQ.
• Working closely with INT’s knowledge products officer and with others as needed, consolidate and finalize PSU’s efforts to gather, analyze, distill and disseminate insights and lessons learned emanating from INT’s investigations for a range of audiences, and to assist finalization of PSU’s contributions to stand-alone advisory and knowledge products for a variety of audiences.
• Supporting PSU Regional Focal Points to finalize PSU’s contributions to working groups and regional and institutional efforts to identify and recommend enhancements to WB internal controls and operational framework affecting WB country operations, operational and corporate risks.
• Working with PSU Regional Focal Points, investigators, auditors, and data analysts and scientists, contribute subject matter expertise to INTs’ Risk Analytics Work Program (providing for example knowledge of integrity risks in procurement, project implementation risks, knowledge of corruption vulnerabilities and risk mitigation in specific sectors and WB client countries).
• Supporting the PSU Regional Focal Points to finalize inputs from the Preventive perspective to PSU and team discussions in the Prevention, Risk and Knowledge Management Unit (PRKM) on INT strategy updates, data systems modernization efforts and business process changes.
• Supporting the PSU TL and the PRKM Manager to prepare for high-level reporting and coordination, including, but not limited to, reports to Managing Directors (MD), interactions with the WB Board, pre-travel briefings to senior staff missions (e.g., the WB President, MDs, INT VP), and for engagements with the Operations, Policy and Country Services (OPCS) unit, Group Internal Audit (GIA), and other WB units.
Training, Outreach, and capacity building

Advise and help conduct in-country and in-person training/workshops, for example:

• Most activities involve a large amount of local tailoring and specific coordinating work with other colleagues in INT, other parts of the WB, client oversight agencies, and integrity arms of partner financiers. However, much can be gained from the development of generic materials that can be quickly reworked for a given context. To meet this need, collect, edit, and archive training materials to make them readily available for all PSU staff to access.
• Support the HQ-based team and the PSU TL to finalize PSU’s inputs for the delivery of corporate learning programs and assist as needed in Human Resources (HR) onboarding clinics to familiarize new staff on the role of INT in the Bank’s fiduciary framework and increase their awareness about how the WB addresses and responds to integrity risks in operations.

Selection Criteria

• Advanced degree and training in a field closely related to international development (e.g., infrastructure, education, health, social protection, sustainable development, public policy, governance, political science, operations management, or public administration).
• At least 5 years of experience in international development projects and programs or anticorruption in international development projects, preferably but not limited to the management of integrity risks in development financed activities.
• Relevant experience with and understanding of the design, implementation, and supervision of development operations, preferably in more than one Region. Expertise and operational experience in WB risk frameworks, financial management or procurement are strong assets. If limited or no WB-related experience, significant relevant experience with risk mitigation in development financing activities would be important, as well as experience connecting policy level guidelines with development programs at the project or program level that would facilitate the operationalizations of such guidelines. Applicants with a mix of 5 years’ experience in risk management, prevention, and investigations would be considered.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, both oral and written are required. A proven ability to clearly and concisely prepare and present findings and recommendations at senior levels and to produce compelling briefs and reports are required. A successful applicant will have demonstrated ability to communicate with tact and diplomacy on sensitive issues with staff and managers at all levels.
• Fluency in both oral and written English is mandatory.  Fluency in other languages could be an asset.
• Proven conceptual, analytical and evaluation skills, with quantitative and qualitative data and the ability to effectively use data.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to work effectively in a team/task force as a participant or team leader and with senior officials internally and externally.
• Sensitivity to the Bank’s diverse demographics and cross-cultural context and influences, and ability to build effective work relations with clients and colleagues.
• Established reputation for integrity, sound judgment, fairness, and discretion.

Competencies

• Client Orientation:  Identifies WB solutions to meet client’s needs and goals. Considers the changing environment and sometimes competing client demands in the forefront of all work activities. Maintains client relationships in the face of conflicting demands or directions and proposes sustainable solutions based on good diagnosis; applies best knowledge and evidence-based advice. Seeks resources and skills to meet challenging and unexpected client needs. Formulates effective development solutions that are sensitive to cultural values and beliefs of varied client groups and is able to resolve differences, negotiate and bring client to closure in a culturally sensitive manner. Delivers new insight and recommends actions or viable solutions for multiple client groups and future needs related to goals and Department-wide results.
• Drive for Results:  Creates conditions to achieve challenging results. Identifies the needed resources to accomplish results involving multiple stakeholders and communicates the importance to business outcomes. Finds solutions to obstacles affecting key deliverables.
• Actively employs risk analysis and mitigates risk, making high-quality decisions on resource allocation and setting priorities for highest impact. Collaborates with others to make needed adjustments to work methods or systems to improve performance.  Teamwork (Collaboration) and Inclusion:  Seeks to improve team collaboration and inclusion.
• Reaches out to contribute to the work of others in the department and beyond. Addresses challenges to effective teamwork contributing to the team staying organized and focused on work, even under stress. Shows leadership in ensuring the team actively seeks and considers diverse ideas and approaches. Directs and identifies the collaboration needed across boundaries, internally and externally to have lasting impact. Keeps teams fully informed to ensure integration and work consistency. Facilitates an open exchange of ideas among team members and across teams to select beneficial solutions among alternatives.
• Knowledge, Learning and Communication:  Transfers knowledge and communicates effectively across boundaries. Leads in the sharing of best practice, trends, knowledge and lessons learned across units and with clients and partners. Leads in designing thematic activities and knowledge-sharing forums and encourages others to participate. Articulates ideas, verbally and in writing, using appropriate language that is understandable and easily appreciated by a target audience that spans several client groups or departments. Provides a forum to mentor, guide and influence colleagues and or client groups to share knowledge across boundaries. Applies expertise and experience to proactively innovate and challenge the status quo. Demonstrates the ability to influence and persuade others to accept ideas and suggestions Bank-wide. 

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

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