„We are deeply concerned by the impact of the current leadership crisis on the bank’s credibility and authority,” 46 employees of the World Bank, who oversee the agency’s campaign to fight corruption in poor nations, said yesterday in a letter to Wolfowitz and the bank’s board. Their own governance standards must be upheld and enforced impartially and without exception, they said.
Workers asked the board to resolve the crisis and demonstratively to all the stakeholders the bank’s commitment to the highest standards of integrity. Three months after Wolfowitz became head of the bank in June 2005, his companion, Shaha Riza, was transferred to the State Department under rules that forbid one partner from supervising another. At the same time, she received a promotion and a 36% pay raise while remaining on the World Bank payroll.
A group of seven bank directors representing France, Ethiopia, China, Norway, the Netherlands, Russia and Mexico has been meeting to make recommendations about Wolfowitz’s future to the full 24-member board. Wolfowitz has said he would accept any remedies the board proposes.
Support is ebbing for Wolfowitz in European capitals. „The situation is creating internal problems within the World Bank. Evelyn Kobelt, spokeswoman of Swiss Economics Minister Doris Leuthard said that Wolfowitz should consider if this situation is good for the credibility of the World Bank.
Wolfowitz’s decisions to suspend loans to countries suspected of corruption have angered some board members because he made the decisions without their approval. The World Bank distributes about $23 billion in aid each year for projects including improvements to sanitation, railways and rural roads in low-income countries. (bloomberg.com)
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