NEW DELHI, April 5: The World Bank’s India country head has said health project loans have been put on hold because of corruption worries and urged the government to plug leaks in social programmes. The comments were published on Wednesday in an opinion article by Michael Carter in the Indian Express after it reported this week that more than half a billion dollars in loans to India, the agency’s largest aid recipient, are stalled because of corruption complaints.

“If India truly wants to take the fruits of is rapid economic growth to every section of its diverse society, it needs to plug the leaks in its public expenditure,” Carter wrote in the article.

The World Bank has been investigating complaints received a year ago that fraud occurred in the purchase of medicines for the program.

“The investigation is still ongoing but we have shared our findings so far with the government of India,” Carter wrote.

“To allow more time for discussion between the bank and the government of India on the most effective ways to address these issues ... we have postponed consideration of a second RCH program and two other health sector loans.”

Together, these loans total some 660 million dollars, according to the Indian Express report.

The World Bank country chief went on to say the incident is not unique and that corruption has gutted many ambitious and expensive public welfare programmes in India.

“There is a very poor connect in India between the quantum of public money disbursed and the accessibility and quality of services allocated,” he wrote.

As a result, many health and quality-of-life indices in India compare unfavourably to those in poorer countries, such as neighbouring Bangladesh or sub-Saharan African nations, Carter said.

“Most tellingly, 47 per cent of India’s under-three infants are undernourished — double the rate of sub-Saharan Africa.”

London-based Corruption watchdog Transparency International ranked India the 88th most corrupt country out of the 159 surveyed in a report released last year that said citizens forked out 4.6 billion dollars in bribes in 2005 to get public services like water.—AFP