The World Bank, though in a hole, needs to dig deeper

Sir, as a former Executive Director of the World Bank (2002-2004) it is with much sadness that I have followed the Wolfowitz affair. It is clear that he should not have played a role in deciding the terms on which his girlfriend was seconded to the US state department” and that he should leave the Bank but, having said that, we need also to question the general idea of the World Bank seconding anyone, even on reasonable and non interfered terms, just to solve a conflict of interest… permitting someone to have the cake and eat it too.

In contrast I remember while an Executive Director how we spent millions of dollars of the Board’s time just in order to debate a “measly” forty thousand dollar a year increase for the then World Bank president James Wolfensohn, so that he would be able to earn as much as his counterpart in the IMF.

Now, after so much procrastination, by all parties, the only real solution for the World Bank, with or without Wolfowitz, lies in appointing a committee of true outsiders to dig deep and review all the World Bank’s current work related policies. The World Bank, when compared to other similar institutions, is very clean but of course, after 64 years of accumulating problem solving compromises, it should be time for a good scrubbing.

The world needs the World Bank to come out of all this smelling like roses and frankly its good staff deserves it.