Criticism of the ADB adds to recent concerns voiced by the US. The chairmen of two US congressional committees are warning that the project evaluation standards of the Asian Development Bank are set to be watered down to unacceptable levels. In a joint letter seen by the Financial Times, Patrick Leahy and Barney Frank, the respective chairmen of the Senate judiciary and House financial services committees, urge Hank Paulson, the US Treasury secretary, to demand that the ADB stick to tougher environmental and social criteria for approving project financing than what is currently foreseen in its planned policy overhaul. Their criticism of the ADB adds to recent concerns voiced by the US and other leading shareholders about how the Manila-based lender is managed, including its staffing and project oversight procedures. It comes ahead of a key ADB meeting this week to agree on future Asian development funding. Leahy and Frank argue that Washington's "participation in the Asian development fund's replenishment should hinge, in part, on a successful outcome of the safeguard policy update'. The ADB's board wants to adopt a new safeguard policy before year-end. The reform process, which started in 2005, has involved the ADB's leading Asian borrowers. Some borrowers have voiced concerns over the lender's slow implementation of projects, which non-governmental organisations claim convinced the ADB that it should loosen its environmental and social criteria. But Nessim Ahmad, director of the ADB's environment and social safeguards division, argued the reform would ensure "the convergence of international best practice on safeguards' and put the ADB on a par with other donors. For example, the ADB's policy for handling indigenous people dates back to 1998, compared with 2005 for that of the World Bank. "Our own lessons from the field have all pointed towards a need to improve our performance,' Ahmad said. "It's definitely not the case that we would wish to change our safeguards to be on a lower level of due diligence.' Still, several NGOs want the ADB to restart the review from scratch. They also worry that the ADB is in a race with less stringent Asian donors such as China, which has become the leading project financier in countries such as Cambodia. "There is a lot of pressure on the ADB to refashion itself in a way that would make it more attractive. It wants do more business in the region and not be left behind vis-