Businesses in China received almost one third of World Bank-funded international contracts, in dollar terms, over the past decade, more than 10 times the value of those awarded to US companies, according to the US Government Accountability Office.
Chinese entities got 29.2% of award money from fiscal years 2013 to 2022, equivalent to about $21 billion, the GAO said in a report published on Wednesday. That compares with 2.4%, or $1.7 billion, for the US, and 4.4% for France. In terms of number of contracts, France received 4.3%, the US 3.3% and China 2.9%.
Part of the discrepancy was because American businesses bid on few contracts, the GAO said. American firms were successful 70% of the time when bidding, based on a summary of data since 2017, the agency said.
The US is the World Bank’s largest shareholder and source of funds, and every one of the lender’s presidents since it was created to rebuild Europe after World War II has been an American.
The GAO also found that 28 contracts from 2017 through 2021, worth about $76 million, went to entities that might have been on US sanctions lists or faced other restrictions. That was out of approximately 150,000 contracts worth about $80 billion. Bank officials could confirm only six of the contracts were awarded to entities on US lists, the GAO said.
The report was produced in response to a request by Republican Senators Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Chuck Grassley of Iowa. They said that the borrower contracts might raise national security or foreign policy concerns for the US.
The time span in the report includes the tenures of Jim Yong Kim, the bank president nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, and David Malpass, nominated by Republican Donald Trump. Malpass is set to step down next month and be replaced by President Joe Biden’s choice, former Mastercard Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ajay Banga.
The World Bank’s principle of universal and open eligibility guarantees bidders from all 189 member nations can seek contracts, a spokesperson for the lender said in response to the report. The only exceptions are entities subject to sanctions from the United Nations’ Security Council or suspended or prohibited under an anti-corruption agreement among multilateral development banks.
“We have assured the GAO of our readiness to work with the US executive director and US agencies to boost participation by US businesses in Bank-financed procurement through our procurement outreach program,” the bank said.