WASHINGTON: World Bank begins head hunt
Updated
The controversial reign of Paul Wolfowitz as the head of the World Bank will come to an end in June. He resigned after a month-long battle to keep his job in the face of mounting pressure for him to leave.
Presenter: Karon Snowdon
Speakers: Shamali Guttal, Senior Researcher with the development NGO, Focus on the Global South; Mark Thirwell, Director International Economy Program, Lowy Institute; David Dollar, World Bank Country Director for China and Mongolia
SNOWDON: In his resignation statement World bank President Paul Wolfowitz said he had acted ethically and in good faith.
Such sentiments were echoed in the bank's statement announcing the resignation in which Mr Wolfowitz was thanked for his service and efforts to stamp out corruption.
His many critics say its taken too long for him to fall on his sword.
Shamali Guttal is a senior researcher with the development NGO, Focus on the Global South.
GUTTAL: I hate to sound like I told you so kind of person, but many, many of us in the south knew that this would happen and knew that before long, Wolfowitz was going to start using his influence and his power, and just his arrogance. Because he comes from a group of policymakers that believe that impunities are right.
SNOWDON:: Paul Wolfowitz was President of the World Bank for two controversial years. His previous role as the US Deputy Secretary of Defence and one of the architects of the Iraq war was enough to cause outrage in many circles at the time of his appointment, his autocratic style in the post was said to put many off side.
One of those who in 2005 initially saw benefits in Paul Wolfowitz being in charge of the Bank responsible for development assistance to the tune of billions of dollars a year was Mark Thirwell.
THIRWELL: Clearly I was wrong.
SNOWDON: Mark Thirwell is the International Economy Program with the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney.
THIRWELL: The argument that I made was that there are reasons to be pessimistic about it. Certainly he wasn't the candidate that people would have chosen if it was a free choice. But given the circumstances that the department's made under, then I sort of hopefully and as it turned out way to optimistically thought that may be it might work out okay in the end. In particular, the way to deal with failed states was to have a pre-emptive strike on poverty, it's turned to economics, rather than to the more interventionist approaches which we've seen in Iraq.
SNOWDON: And he came into the job didn't he guns blazing in a sense, when he was pretty strongly talking about governance as a condition for the World Bank's loans to certain governments and this sort of thing. He's really fallen from a great height himself it could be said?
THIRWELL: Yes, he has. I mean if you're going to run with that kind of mandate, that you've got to see yourself as completely of any kind of reproach and as we've seen what's happened.
SNOWDON: The appointment of Mr Wolfowitz followed the traditional practice of having the Bank run by an American. Its related organisation the International Monetary Fund is always headed by a European.
The focus now will turn to his replacement and speculation is already naming many US administration high fliers.
Activist Shamali Guttal says there are deeper issues beyond a new appointment the Bank must explore.
GUTTAL: He went after Cambodia, India, Kenya and whatever. Of course the World Bank should go after corruption, we should all go after corruption. But at no point did the World Bank ever agree to turn the lens on its own operations. So, I hope that the World Bank is not going to take a moral high ground and say look guys, we're good, because that doesn't address the problem. This is the tip of the iceberg.
SNOWDON: The view from within the Bank itself - at least in the field - is business as usual.
David Dollar, The World bank Country Director for China and Mongolia says the leadership crisis had little effect on his work.
DOLLAR: In the past couple of weeks, we've negotiated four new projects. Frankly we've been carrying out our work as usual. We're paying attention to what's happening, but it hasn't really been such a big distraction that it's affected the work on the ground.
SNOWDON: Do you think it damages the World Bank's reputation in the countries that it's mostly working in?
DOLLAR: Just the opposite. I think the resolution of the crisis shows that the World Bank has an effective and transparent governance structure and I would think that the resolution of the crisis is going to enhance our reputation and our relevance throughout developing Asia.
