Jim Yong King
World Bank chief Jim Yong King wants to clamp down on corruption (Reuters)

World Bank officials blacklisted over 307 entities over the past 12 months, according to a new report by the development bank, a sharp rise on the previous year.

A total of 252 individuals and entities were blacklisted from January to July 2013, while only 65 such instances were recorded in 2012.

The World Bank is keen to clamp down on misbehaviour with $200bn (£125.5bn, €150bn) given to finance development projects in the world's poorest states over since 2008. Some estimates put stolen aid at $40bn.

In a major show of force, SNC-Lavalin, a large Canadian multinational, was debarred for a period of 10 years with 100 of its affiliates by the World Bank.

The construction firm was involved in a $3bn railroad bridge project in Bangladesh that has been swamped in corruption allegations.

The reported sanctions reveal a number of patterns with five sectors that make up two-thirds of the bank's reported sanction decisions.

These sectors were healthcare, transportation, agriculture, energy and water.

Regions also represented certain noteworthy trends on the spread of corruption across the globe.

Africa was found to amount to one-third of investigations and the vast majority of cases to date involved fraud.

Furthermore, 29% of debarred firms were located in North America, while 21% were in Europe and central Asia.

In terms of other offences that do not cover bid rigging, fraud and bribery but other wrongdoing known as "sanctionable practices", 91 entities received other sanctions in the seven months of 2013 compared to 5 in 2012 and 1 in 2011.

Ongoing Review

The current report comes in the context of a consultation process that was started on the 3 July 2013 by the World Bank's legal department to review its sanctions system and will close on 30 September, 2013.

A final report is expected sometime in 2014 that is meant to clarify the institutions powers and responsibilities in tackling corruption on a global scale.

In January 2013, President of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim gave a major speech that said that the bank had concluded 600 investigations of fraud, general misconduct and corruption.

The report was compiled by the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Derringer.