European Donor Bank Complaint Response: Issues and Failures to Address Employer Fraudulent Behaviour on a Dual Metro, UP, India

Abstract

This paper is focused on assessing issues and failures relating to a fraud and toxic leadership complaint to a European donor Bank (ED), relating to a dual-metro infrastructure construction, in UP, India.

A qualitative methodology was employed in order to help understand Project personnel perceptions of ED Complaint Response in UP, India. The study scope for this research were present and past personnel (those that left the project in 2024) and whom had direct experience of the complaint basis, as well as those being forced to resign or be dismissed by the toxic behaviour of the Employer.

The targeted population was made up of sixteen (16) PMC personnel (present and past), from a Project Management JV (PMC), located across a dual-metro construction project, having similar experiences of the project toxic leadership and fraudulent behaviour. These were chosen within an identified “closed cohort” population.

A semi-structured interview design was employed interviewing 16 respondents, with a pilot study conducted with 2 respondents, who were subsequently eliminated from the main interview process.

The research outcomes consist of Seven Main Themes (7) - Governance reporting; Stakeholder Issues; Project fraud risk management; Project Fraud Audits; On-Project Fraud Countermeasures; Fraud Investigations; and Remediation Issues; and Twenty-two sub-themes (22) - with 353 dialogue instances. 

The research outcome has raised important issues of systemic failures of the ED management to apply an appropriate range of engagements and subsequent interest in their own policies, procedures and standards, designed to help mitigate fraud on a donor funded project in India. Further, the lack of capability to assess complaints effectively, where discrimination by the applied complaints process, has exacerbated the negative effects on the whistleblower and also gave rise to the arrogation of the PMC contract, without notice and a situation where €1.1Bln of ED assets have been openly at very high risk of misappropriation by the Employer (borrower).