A tribunal was asked a narrow question: did the World Bank breach Article 25.03 of its own contract? The clause that mattered most was Article 25.03(ii), where the Bank promised it would “not have access to any other Contractor’s information.” Unicon’s case was never that it withheld Somalia data. It was that it provided the contract-related material and redacted only the unrelated confidential portions of mixed bank statements because the Bank’s own wording said those portions were off-limits. This was not non-cooperation. It was contract compliance.
The World Bank then tried to turn that compliance into a sanctionable offense. That move worked only if Article 25.03(ii) disappeared. In the arbitral record, the Bank argued that the only relevant limitation on its audit rights was that the records be related to the contract and that “there is no further limitation.” The award then mirrored that move. In summarising the Bank’s position, it referred to only two express limitations – Article 25.03(i)’s contract-only scope; and Article 25.03(iii)’s confidentiality/data privacy – while the separate prohibition in Article 25.03(ii) on access to “any other Contractor’s information” vanished.
The story these documents tell is not of a contractor refusing an audit. It is of a contractor following the Bank’s own contract, a Bank converting that compliance into a pretext sanction, and a tribunal refusing ever to show where it addressed the one sentence that mattered. Article 25.03(ii) was not overlooked. It was omitted because acknowledging it would have made it impossible to protect the World Bank in a legal dispute.
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World Bank Acknowledging Unicon’s Correct Contract Interpretation:
- Reasonable request for the World Bank to clarify its contract interpretation
- Tacit acknowledgement of Unicon’s correct interpretation
World Bank Acknowledging Unicon’s Innocence:
- Detailed correspondence showing INT’s awareness of Unicon’s innocence
- Unicon’s demand for referral to state law enforcement
- Unicon’s direct referral to Somali state authorities
- Tacit acknowledgement of Unicon’s innocence by the World Bank
Arbitration Documents:
- Evidence of the corrupted nature of the tribunal’s award
- Unanswered requests for the tribunal to address serious concerns, thus acknowledging the award’s corrupted nature
- Unicon’s Submission in Round 1
- World Bank’s Submission in Round 1
- Unicon’s Submission in Round 2
- World Bank’s Submission in Round 2
- Discovery of INT’s false allegations and misleading statements
- Summary Presentation
- Award (PCA Case No. 2023-69, Unicon v. The World Bank)
- Arbitral files and exhibits
Other disclosures:
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Media:
- Article by Global Arbitration Review
- Publication in Jus Mundi
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For further information, contact Rustam Davletkhan
