Feb. 14--The World Bank has a history of withholding information that could embroil it in controversies, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., said Friday.

He said added that he had received reports that World Bank managers kept under the lid a $39-million project that led to the destruction of a village in Albania in 2007.

Pimentel also cited the case of Satyam Computer Services Ltd., an outsourcing giant in India, found by the bank to have engaged in "improper financial relations with a top WB official." The report said the World Bank concealed both its corruption probe and the investigation results from all other United Nations institutions, including those with contracts with Satyam.

He said that the World Bank should not do to the Philippines what it did in Albania and with Satyam, and submit to the Senate all reports relating to the blacklisting of three Filipino contractors.

The Senate Committee on Economic Affairs headed by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago decided the other day to issue a poena to Bert Hofman, the country director of the bank, to appear at the next hearing and to bring with him all five World Bank reports on the blacklisting.

Santiago said Hofman would be cited for contempt should he continue to ignore the subpoena. She contended that Hofman does not enjoy diplomatic immunity, since there is no headquarters agreement between the Philippines and the World Bank.

Referral Report

The World Bank gave a copy of a nine-page Referral Report to Finance Secretary Margarito Teves and Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. But it considered the report "strictly confidential" and imposed restrictions on its use. Gutierrez said the report could not be used in any administrative or criminal proceedings and neither should it be mentioned nor parts of it quoted in any oral testimony.

The Senate will meet in an executive session next week to discuss this confidentiality imposed by the World Bank on the report. But most of the senators have already indicated that they would not honor it.

Pressure on World Bank

Pimentel said the Senate should pressure the World Bank "not to fight it but to go against those who stole the people's money."

"We are not out to protect scheming contractors. We want to have them in jail, in accordance with the rule of law, but without the World Bank report, we have nothing to slap them with," the senator explained.

All blacklisted contractors and present and former officials named in supposed excerpts of the bank report made a blanket denial of any involvement in the rigging of bidding for World Bank-funded projects.