World Bank Staff sick of sleaze and corruption, begin letter campaign to Board

World Bank Staff reacted with disgust today to revelations that a staff blog was being censored and that references to a planned demonstration, calling for Wolfowitz' resignation were deleted.

The blog, located on the World Bank intranet, was established on Thursday, April 12, after Executive Directors forced the full disclosure of documents in the Wolfowitz sleaze scandal. The article entitled "Executive Directors Review Report, Release Documents" led to a blog of staff response and comments that had reached 259 individual postings on Saturday evening.

Today staff learned that not all blog postings were being posted in entirety and that any postings that referred to a planned demonstration were disappearing or not being posted.

The revelation cast frightening doubt on the anonymity of staff contributions to the blog, leaving hundreds of staff who have blogged anonymously fearing reprisals from the Wolfowitz team.

In response, staff have begun a letter writing campaign to their Executive Directors asking that the Board of the Bank call for Wolfowitz' resignation. The Executive Directors are the sitting chairs of the World Bank board, representing around 180 countries, and are responsible for its governance.

Staff are now blogging at http://wolfowitzmustresign.blogspot.com/