A Message to Wolfowitz and the Board of Executive Directors from members of the World Bank Group’s Governance & Anticorruption Team
...We are deeply concerned by the impact of the current leadership crisis on the Bank’s credibility and authority to engage with governments, non-government stakeholders, and donor partners on the GAC agenda. As is known, there are reports from the field offices of concrete cases where the Bank’s policy dialogue and operational work on governance and anticorruption are being undermined. The credibility of our front line staff is eroding in the face of legitimate questions from our clients about the Bank’s ability to “practice what it preaches” on governance. In these circumstances, we cannot credibly implement the GAC strategy...
See comments for full message from Governance and Anticorruption Team
For more information please contact
Dan Kaufmann dkaufmann@worldbank.org tel: 202-458-9187, or
Sanjay Pradhan spradhan@worldbank.org tel: 202-458-9187, or
Sumir Lal slal@worldbank.org tel: 202-458-7635, or
Carolyn Reynolds Creynolds@worldbank.org tel: 202-473-0049.
See comments for Team Members
15 comments:
Team Members:
Nisha Agrawal
Joachim von Amsberg
Lubomira Beardsley
Christina Beibesheimer
Ana Bellver
Robert Beschel
Steven Charles Burgess
Jose Edgardo Campos
Robert Chase
Anupama Dokeniya
Colum Garrity
Ellen Goldstein
Scott E. Guggenheim
Peter Harrold
Anthony Hegarty
Guenter Heidenhof
Joel Hellman
Farrukh Iqbal
Roumeen Islam
Erika Jorgensen
Kapil Kapoor
Daniel Kaufmann
Philip Keefer
Elizabeth King
Jens Kromann Kristensen
Sumir Lal
Brian Levy
Nick Manning
Denyse Morin
Amitabha Mukherjee
Helga Muller
Ronald Myers
Barbara Nunberg
Sanjay Pradhan
Naseer Ahmad Rana
Francesca Recanatini
Carolyn Reynolds
Denis Robitaille
Randi Ryterman
Lilian Samson
Arshad Sayed
Anwar Shah
Tony Verheijen
Steven Webb
Deborah Wetzel
Roman Zyla
... and other members of the Public Sector Governance Board and the Field-based GAC Advisory Group.
This editorial takes PW's side -- paints him as being unfairly attacked by people who really only hate him because of Iraq:
http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/opinion/local_story_116172458.html?keyword=secondarystory
They do have a comments area for anyone who wants to go over there and help set readers straight. Unfortunately, you do have to enter your email address before posting (though I suppose you could get an anonymous account such as yahoo.com or hotmail.com etc ... just don't access it from work).
PW will be meeting with the Board Monday:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4753159.html
(one of many syndicated copies of the same article)
I hope Wolfowitz goes. But the message to the World Bank board by this pompously named team is somewhat hypocritical. We who live in developing countries and have to deal with lousy economic policies and crooked governments on a daily basis have often been at the receiving end of selective, self-serving advice from World Bank staff often delivered in an arrogant or pompous manner. We have never seen World Bank staff apologize or even acknowledge the disasterous half-baked advice they have so often given to us. We have also seen World Bank staff overlook, or wink and nod at lousy decisions by our governments in order to push loans. So it would be nice if the erudite folks on this list were to also come clean on their own acts of omissions and commissions. As a tax-payer in a developing country my taxes are used to repay World Bank loans. World Bank staff can bravely and boldly launch new innovative lofty initiatives because they incur no personal liability and are not accountable for lousy lending. Did any World Bank staff (especially Vice Presidents, Chief Economists, and Directors) ever get fired for pushing loans to crooked governments with lousy economic policies? Lending exuberance by World Bank staff contributed to HIPIC.
It is wonderful that pressure on Wolfowitz to quit is increasing. It would also be wonderful if World Bank staff also was under more pressure by the Board to be more modest, circumspect, honest and less sanctimonious when talking about poverty, growth, development and corruption. Intellectual dishonesty is equally corrupting.
Looking ahead just a bit, how is it going to affect the battle against corruption when, in about a week, Wolfowitz agrees to leave, but only in return for at least a seven figure severance package (all his pay through the full contract accelerated, legal bills paid, some kind of payment for him and his girlfriend to waive litigation, etc.)?
I don't think Wolfowitz thinks he is going to stay. And I don't think Wolfowitz cares one tiny bit about the future or mission of the bank. At this point, I think he cares about leaving with as much money as possible (money otherwise intended to help the world's poorest people), and with some figleaf document saying he wasn't a total crook. I also think, as is typical in these kinds of cases, the bank will write the check just to get rid of him.
So here's the question - what do the line people from the bank say to some third world bureaucrat with his hand caught in the till when he agrees to stop, but only if he gets a "Wolfowitz Deal"?
There are many words and phrases that can be used to describe Wolfowitz - all seemingly contraditory, but all with an element of truth:
Weak, idealistic, autistic, short-sighted, passionate (in love and war), disorganized, believer in his own genius, sufferer of logical traps, suckerupper, bleeding-heart, neocon, pragmatist, confused intellectual, soft-spoken, arrogant, power-lover, scholar, etc. These contradictary attributes have resulted in creating a man who has been caught in a tragedy of his own making. His hubristic idealism has resulted in unbalancing the world order, death for thousands if not millions, and severe damage to the process of development aid. There are few individuals who can claim to have caused as much harm in the name of doing good - a phenomenon that should now be labelled the "Wolfowitz syndrome". One hopes his going will catalyze fundamental changes in how the World Bank functions to allow it break out of the Wolfowitz syndrome.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009995
More from the WSJ talking about how reformer-minded Africans support PW. Honestly, I think the fact that anti-corruption Africans (yes, there ARE some, please no jokes that only serve to show your ignorance and stereotyping of Africans) support him is one of the few arguments in his favor that I view as having some legitimacy. But then she goes on to insult PW critics and WB staffers as people who don't care about Africa. Feh. Well, at least it's original: most other pro-PW editorialists accuse us of liking corruption.
For what it's worth, I do strongly feel that PW's Africa-centric focus and his emphasis on governance are two of the few things he did right (my only objection to the latter being that he was too arbitruary in how he applied it -- but the recent GAC documents at least tries to address that issue). I just feel that now someone else should be taking on those causes.
anon 2:54 - Wolfowitz may have been the "architect" of the war but he didn't have the final say. Cheney and Rumsfeld had to give it the green light so I hold them significantly more responsibile than Wolfowitz.
A Message to Wolfowitz and the Board of Executive Directors from members of the World Bank Group’s Governance & Anticorruption Team
As members of the drafting and implementation team for the World Bank Group’s Governance and Anticorruption (GAC) strategy, both from Washington and country offices, and of the Public Sector Governance Board, we represent a large group of Bank staff, who have been working on the governance agenda for well over a decade. We are strongly committed to advancing this work through the implementation of the GAC strategy, after the unanimous endorsement of the GAC by the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors, following an unprecedented consultation with thousands of stakeholders in 47 countries. The GAC carries forward many years of effort within and outside the Bank, recognizing the critical impact of good governance and anticorruption in poverty reduction. We believe that the GAC is an essential part of the Bank’s overall mission to reduce poverty.
However, to implement the GAC effectively, the Bank needs to be recognized by all stakeholders as an institution maintaining the highest standards of integrity and governance. Therefore, we are deeply concerned by the impact of the current leadership crisis on the Bank’s credibility and authority to engage with governments, non-government stakeholders, and donor partners on the GAC agenda. As is known, there are reports from the field offices of concrete cases where the Bank’s policy dialogue and operational work on governance and anticorruption are being undermined. The credibility of our front line staff is eroding in the face of legitimate questions from our clients about the Bank’s ability to “practice what it preaches” on governance. In these circumstances, we cannot credibly implement the GAC strategy.
Therefore, the present crisis is a critical test of the Bank’s own commitment to the principles of sound corporate governance. Our own governance standards must be upheld and enforced impartially and without exception by both the Bank’s Senior Management and the Board of Executive Directors, even when they touch the highest levels of this institution. We call upon the Board of Executive Directors and the President to take clear and decisive actions to resolve this crisis quickly in a way that demonstrates to all our stakeholders the Bank’s commitment to the highest standards of integrity in leadership and accountability. This is essential for restoring the legitimacy and trust we need to work together with our partners on implementing the GAC agenda.
For more information please contact
Dan Kaufmann dkaufmann@worldbank.org tel: 202-473-0992, or
Sanjay Pradhan spradhan@worldbank.org tel: 202-458-9187, or
Sumir Lal slal@worldbank.org tel: 202-458-7635, or
Carolyn Reynolds creynolds@worldbank.org tel: 202-473-0049.
See above comments for Team Members
To the GAC group:
It sounds like you have been hearing many specific cases in which the Bank's attempts to fight corruption has been demonstrably undermined because of "TCS" (The Current Situation) with PW. I think it would considerably strengthen your case if you could write a follow up to this letter documenting all the reports that you have heard from the field, and send that compilation of reports to the Board of Executive Directors and to the media (Financial Times, etc). Do you have plans in the work to do this?
I assume you are well aware that PW will be meeting with the Board on Monday.
Thanks.
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