29 March 2007
China, the World Bank's second biggest borrower, has suggested that Wolfowitz's anti-corruption drive might be overstepping its boundaries and that it might begin turning down loans according to an article by investigative journalist, Richard Behar.
Copies of internal World Bank emails and a summary of feedback reports on the Good Governance and Anti-corruption strategy suggest that there is more tension behind the doors of the World Bank Board room than President Paul Wolfowitz would care to admit.
Some of the World Bank's biggest customers including China, India, Indonesia and Mexico have approached Wolfowitz and requested that he "tone down any anticorruption strategy that would intrude in their country's internal affairs" reports Fox News.
The World Bank is currently in the midst of a push to replenish the contributions of donor countries in order to continue providing low interest loans and grants to developing countries. The organization is struggling to compete with alternative lending sources and has had to decrease the interest rates of its loans in order to continue lending. Behar reports that certain countries have recognized the World Bank's vulnerability and are using this to their advantage. Encountering resistance on a number of issues in the anti-corruption strategy, Wolfowitz has been forced to reduce the initiative to what some are considering so watered down that it borders on irrelevance.
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