"World Bank finds Chinese company committed violations in Bolivian infrastructure project" 31 May 2024

A World Bank investigation into a US$230 million infrastructure project in Bolivia found numerous violations committed by a large state-owned Chinese construction company...

The bank’s board approved the financing in 2017 and awarded it to the Bolivian Road Administration (ABC), which then commissioned China State Construction Engineering Corporation, the world’s largest construction company, to lead the work...

The project aimed to widen and pave the previously gravelled road to improve traffic along the road corridor and benefit around 125,000 residents along the route, 62 per cent of whom are indigenous. Indigenous leaders said that residents attended short meetings arranged by the World Bank and had to sign attendance lists to prove that such consultations were held, even though they said their concerns were ignored.

CSCEC also faces accusations of manipulating locals into signing unfavourable land concession contracts to use their “borrow pits” – holes or excavations from which gravel, clay, soil or sand is extracted for a construction project. In several documented cases, the payments offered for land use were below market value, with the indigenous communities unaware of the discrepancy...

Locals also complained to investigators that CSCEC should have built affordable housing as compensation for using land affected by the project. The company did build housing, but they were unfinished and disregarded the region’s climate characteristics....CSCEC “never detailed exactly what they were compensating for and made a point of not leaving any documentary evidence”, and that the structures were “practically uninhabitable”...the company threatened those who spoke up with legal action...

The World Bank report implicated CSCEC in numerous other offences. Among these were the pollution of crucial water sources for nearby communities and non-compliance with labour laws, including delayed wages, unpaid health insurance and severance pay as well as the lack of adequate protective equipment for workers...

The World Bank has not commented on whether the Chinese company will be sanctioned again for the violations found in Bolivia...CSCEC and the Bolivian road agency did not respond to requests for comment...