Letter from World Bank Country Directors on Paul Wolfowitz

World Bank coungry directors write:

FT.com / In depth - Letter from World Bank country directors: As World Bank Country Directors we are acutely aware that the Board, management and staff of the Bank face an internal crisis that has damaged our reputation and jeopardises our effectiveness as a development institution. Bank colleagues working on governance and anti-corruption and in the Independent Evaluation Group have shared their serious concerns, and we echo them. If we do not maintain high standards of integrity ourselves, we cannot speak effectively on the governance issues that lie at the heart of our development mandate.

This crisis goes beyond the governance and anti-corruption agenda and affects our ability to deliver across the entire development spectrum. Our country programmes are built on trust, mutual respect and partnership. These assets will be compromised unless this episode is brought to a swift and satisfactory conclusion. If donors are not convinced that the institution and its top officials merit their full support, future IDA funding may be endangered--at great cost to our ability to assist low-income countries, particularly in Africa. The Bank must practice what it preaches on governance and accountability for us to be credible in our partner countries.

These are strong assertions, and we do not make them lightly. They are based on numerous interactions with our clients in recent weeks. In country after country, government counterparts, civil society, international development agencies, the private sector, parliamentarians and the media are waiting to see how the Bank will resolve its problems. We respect our Board’s deliberations and see the Bank’s commitment to a process that follows sound ethical and governance principles as a major strength. We also look forward to an outcome consistent with the standards we advocate to others, and believe that a credible resolution will enable the Bank to emerge with its reputation enhanced. Failure to act credibly, on the other hand, risks both the reputation and the mission of the institution. We therefore call on the Board and the President to resolve the crisis quickly in a way that demonstrates the Bank’s commitment to the highest standards of integrity and accountability.

This message is signed by 37 of the Bank’s Country Directors, working in all regions of the world. We refrained from expressing our views while the ad hoc committee of the Board was pursuing its investigation. Now that it has submitted its report, we encourage the Board to act quickly to resolve the issue.

Sincerely,

Theodore Ahlers, Country Director, Algeria, Libya, Malto, Morocco, Tunisia
Pedro Alba, Country Director, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Rwanda
Caroline Anstey, Country Director, the Caribbean
Jane Armitage, Country Director, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama
Michael Baxter, Country Director, Angola, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Paul Bermingham, Country Director, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine
James Bond, Country Director, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Mauritania, Togo
Colin Bruce, Country Director, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia
David Craig, Country Director, West Bank and Gaza
Yusupha Crookes, Country Director, Pakistan
Ishac Diwan, Country Director, Ethiopia, Sudan
Annette Dixon, Country Director, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
David Dollar, Country Director, China, Mongolia
Donna Dowsett-Coirolo, Country Director, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia
Hafez Ghanem, Country Director, Nigeria
Marcelo Giugale, Country Director, Bolivia, Ecuador, Perú, Venezuela
Susan Goldmark, Country Director designate, Nepal (from July 1)
Isabel Guerrero, Country Director, India
Carlos Felipe Jaramillo, Country Director designate, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela (from July 1)
Orsalia Kalantzopoulos, Country Director, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro
Mats Karlsson, Country Director, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone
Emmanuel Mbi, Country Director, Djibouti, Egypt, Yemen
Alastair McKechnie, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives
Judy O’Connor, Country Director, Tanzania, Uganda
Kenichi Ohashi, Country Director, Nepal
Ian Porter, Country Director, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand
Hossein Razavi, Country Director, Gulf States TA Program
Ritva Reinikka, Country Director, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland
Klaus Rohland, Country Director, Russian Federation
Nigel Roberts, Country Director, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, the Pacific Islands
Joseph Saba, Country Director, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria
Madani Tall, Country Director, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Senegal
Mark Tomlinson, Director, Africa Regional Integration
Axel van Trotsenburg, Country Director, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay
Joachim von Amsberg, Country Director, Philippines
Zhu Xian, Country Director, Bangladesh
Ulrich Zachau, Country Director, Cyprus, Turkey

Comments

[Admiral Tirpitz]

James Bond works for the World Bank?

[Richard W. Crews]

That letter, at least as edited here, said nothing. Is it to be implied that the problem is wolfie?

[RKimble]

Esteemed Admiral:

Mr Bond does indeed work for the WB. Ian Fleming might be horrified to learn that the WB's Mr Bond is ... French.

Mr Crews:

Because everyone knows that there is only one thing that the Board can do -- ease PW out -- then the letter says that if PW does not go soon, those who are leading the Bank's work (forget the VPs; it is these 37 people) are worried about the next replenishment of IDA. Second, it passes along the views of clients about the Board's impending decision. These things add up to much more than nothing.

[christofay]

The Bush/Cheney is going over the heads of the Country Directors for the brown people nations appealing to the G7. Finally our president is practicing diplomacy to Old Europe.

[Alan]

Has anyone mentioned the possibility that if the bank directors forcibly toss Wolfowitz, that it would affect funding of the bank from the U.S.?

I wouldn't put it past Bush/Cheney to use this as a lever. Have they?

[nickman1979]

It's easy.

He broke the rules. He's the world bank leader. This sends the message that the world bank will break the rules since it's president breaks them. It's no different than him logging into the payroll system and giving himself a raise.

Who know's how many other women he's "taken care of".

[anne]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329850309-110878,00.html

May 15, 2007

Angry Wolfowitz in Four-Letter Tirade
Richard Adams - Guardian

An angry and bitter Paul Wolfowitz poured abuse and threatened retaliations on senior World Bank staff if his orders for pay rises and promotions for his partner were revealed, according to new details published last night.

Under fire for the lavish package given to Shaha Riza, a World Bank employee and Mr Wolfowitz's girlfriend when he became president, an official investigation into the controversy has found that Mr Wolfowitz broke bank rules and violated his own contract – setting off a struggle between US and European governments over Mr Wolfowitz's future.

Sounding more like a cast member of the Sopranos than an international leader, in testimony by one key witness Mr Wolfowitz declares: "If they fuck with me or Shaha, I have enough on them to fuck them too."

The remarks were published in a report detailing the controversy that erupted last month after the size of Ms Riza's pay rises was revealed. The report slates Mr Wolfowitz for his "questionable judgment and a preoccupation with self-interest", saying: "Mr Wolfowitz saw himself as the outsider to whom the established rules and standards did not apply."

The report brushed off Mr Wolfowitz's defence that he thought he had been asked to arrange Ms Riza's pay package, observing that "the interpretation given by Mr Wolfowitz ... simply turns logic on its head"....

[anne]

Quite the lout we have here; I did not understand what Paul Wolfowitz was about at the World Bank early on, but I do understand now.

[Bupa]

"Our country programmes are built on trust, mutual respect and partnership."

The next line should have been: "...and these preconditions are not possible with a despicable, corrupt, war criminal forced on the institution as our president by the most despised rogue regime in the world."

[Bupa]

christofay the Bush/Cheney regime are not capable of practicing diplomacy. To practice diplomacy you must understand your adversary.

The Bush/Cheney regime does not understand “old Europe”. Bush and Cheney do not understand that they are despised because they are despicable. They do not understand that they are despised because they are war criminals. They do not understand that they are despised because they pose the largest threat to humanity of all the rouge regimes in the world today. Bush and Cheney and the few remaining neocon hacks that write for the WSJ editorial page do not understand that promoting Paul Wolfowitz to lead the World Bank to fight corruption is like appointing the management of Phillip Morris to lead the World Health Organization to fight smoking.

Diplomacy. What hole are you living in?

[andres]

Hmmm. It gives a lot of food for thought. The language people use to express themselves is also a key to their overall outlook. If you have a "**** with me and I'll **** you" mentality, you're unlikely to make a good diplomat, which is a key aspect of the WB presidency. The damage that such a mentality can do in the WB, however, is small compared to the damage that it can and has done in the Defense Department. It is truly tragic.

[Ken Houghton]

Let's see: If Wolfowitz stays, the World Bank has no credibility. If Wolfowitz goes, the World Bank loses at least some U.S. funding.

Either way, Paul Wolfowitz is now two for two in destroying things while supposedly attempting to save them.

Either he's truly incompetent, oras was suggested at the time, at least in the latter casethat was the plan all along.