Business As Usual
Now, doesn't it seem like we've heard this song before?
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz faces mounting criticism from directors of the international lending organisation who say he relies on political advisers with little expertise in development while driving away seasoned managers.
Cronyism before competence? But that's worked out so well before!
Memo to the Third World: a hurricane is coming. Yes, another one.
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz faces mounting criticism from directors of the international lending organisation who say he relies on political advisers with little expertise in development while driving away seasoned managers.
Cronyism before competence? But that's worked out so well before!
Memo to the Third World: a hurricane is coming. Yes, another one.
posted by Management at 8:51 AM
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Wolfowitz in firing line as World Bank faces mass exodus
Christopher Swann, Washington
December 13, 2006
WORLD Bank president Paul Wolfowitz faces mounting criticism from directors of the international lending organisation who say he relies on political advisers with little expertise in development while driving away seasoned managers.
Half of the bank's 29 highest-level executives have left since Mr Wolfowitz, the former US deputy defence secretary and an architect of President George Bush's invasion of Iraq, took office in June last year. Among them is Christiaan Poortman, vice-president for the Middle East and a 30-year veteran, who left in September after resisting pressure to speed up lending and adding staff in Iraq.
"It was very sad to see someone of Mr Poortman's calibre leaving," Eckhard Deutscher, one of 24 executive directors who oversee the management of the lender, said. "The bank needs to be very careful not to lose too much of its human capital."
The exodus is damaging the poverty-fighting institution, which provided $US23.6 billion ($A30 billion) last year for projects such as schools and clinics, say directors and observers.
Three directors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were concerned governments might be less willing to contribute because of unhappiness with Mr Wolfowitz.
The only other chief to sweep aside as many senior managers was Mr Wolfowitz's predecessor, James Wolfensohn, said Devesh Kapur, a former economist at the lender. The difference was that Mr Wolfowitz's appointees were short on expertise and long on political connections.
New faces include counsellor to the president Robin Cleveland, who as associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget helped secure congressional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Kevin Kellems, a former spokesman for Vice-President Dick Cheney, was named director of external strategy. Suzanne Rich Folsom, who joined in 2003 and is the bank's chief corruption fighter, is married to George Folsom, who was principal deputy director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office and president of the International Republican Institute.
Mr Wolfowitz, 62, "has placed considerably more trust in a small group of outsiders from the Republican Party than in the seasoned experts in the bank", said Alison Cave, head of the World Bank staff association.
"The changes under Wolfowitz are unprecedented in the calculated manner in which inexperienced or ideological replacements are being placed in senior positions," said Mr Kapur.
Among those who left the bank after disagreements with Mr Wolfowitz are Roberto Danino, general counsel and a former prime minister of Peru; Ian Goldin, vice-president for external affairs; and Gobind Nankani, vice-president for Africa. Of the 14 executives who left, three had reached retirement age, according to the staff association.
Mr Wolfowitz said plans for a "modest, incremental upgrading" of Iraq operations came in response to donor nations and were approved by the Middle East department.
Mr Kellems said that "change in senior posts throughout the bank had been more gradual than most people expected, and the senior management team was very international, and composed of experienced professionals from a wide range of backgrounds and viewpoints".
The push to beef up the bank's presence in Baghdad has been a subject of clashes with officials. Mr Wolfowitz said staff safety was "at the top of our list of priorities".
Mr Bush's nomination of Mr Wolfowitz last year raised concern among employees that he would use his position to promote US-Iraq policies. His plan to step up activities in Baghdad "exposes him to charges of attempting to provide political cover for the White House", said Nancy Birdsall, a former director of the bank's policy research department and president of the Centre for Global Development. "Mr Wolfowitz managed to silence a lot of his critics in the first months of his tenure by listening and by promising to focus on poverty reduction in Africa," she said. "But many … early doubts have resurfaced." Hartwig Schafer, the bank's director of African operations, said Mr Wolfowitz's attention to Africa had won plaudits.
Ian Vasquez, a director at the Cato Institute, which supports limited government, said itwas no surprise that a new president had caused some discontent. "Even so, the appointment of Republican aides may not have been the smartest political move within the World Bank."
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