EBRD head cleared of wrong doing by external investigation

The head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has been cleared of wrongdoing by an external investigation into claims by several member states that the lender inappropriately gathered information on some of their directors, the bank said on Thursday.

Several board members, who represented some of the bank's 70 member governments, made the complaint against EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti in May and an external investigation was subsequently opened, four sources told Reuters in October. One of the sources said that seven government representatives had jointly filed the complaint.

"It is the Inquiry Officer's assessment that the alleged misconduct did not occur," Chakrabarti said in a letter sent by e-mail to EBRD staff on Thursday and seen by Reuters.

The EBRD's Managing Director for Communications, Jonathan Charles, confirmed that an external investigation had concluded that there was no misconduct by Chakrabarti.

"The file is now closed," Charles said.

The original complaint, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, said a number of board members anonymously received documents in May containing copies of email exchanges between the president and executive committee, as well as excerpts from other official bank reports, which contained personal information on board members compiled without their consent.

The complaint said the language used in some of the documents appeared as "rude, unethical and derogatory".

In his letter to staff on Thursday, Chakrabarti said the investigation had required painstaking work, interviews with dozens of witnesses and a "thorough examination of the Bank's communications systems."

"These past few months have been very difficult for me personally," he added. "I am of course satisfied with the outcome."

The EBRD, founded in 1991 by the international community to help the communist Eastern Bloc transform to capitalism after the Cold War, invests around 10 billion euros ($11.4 billion) a year in almost 40 countries.

($1 = 0.8788 euros)