19 April 2007
The www.worldbankpresident.org blog reviews the various camps concerned with the recent allegations surrounding World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz
The battle lines in the Wolfowitz-Shaha drama are coming sharper into focus. There are three main constituencies in this battle. Wolfowitz and his small number of supporters whose careers are tied to his, the Staff Association which clearly represents the majority of staff, and the board of executive directors, which represents their respected countries.
It has become very clear yesterday and today that the Staff Association represents the views of not only a small unhappy group, but has broad base support in the entire institution from top to bottom, including former senior staff . Wolfowitz and his group, seem to have only the white house in their corner, and showing all characteristics of a weasel who does not know what a dignified exit looks like, Wolfowitz still pathetically hangs on to his office, despite the costs to a once respected international institution. . While the board of directors, having been abandoned by their Ministers , who chickened out of making the only possible credible decision at this stage to ask Wolfowitz privately to step down, or vote him out of office publicly, are now struggling, as mid-level bureaucrats of Finance Ministries are known to be, to make a decision bigger than they are. This does not abode well for a global institution and the millions of the poor who depend on it around the world. It is shaping up to be a crisis , far deeper than an "Unacceptable impropriety" , its a crisis that shows the sham of the notion of a capable international community and its deep lack of self respectability to even address the matter decisively.
I'm taking bets that this board of impotent executive directors will only meet tomorrow to figure out a way to how not to fire Wolfowitz and still maintain some respectably. My bet is that they can't do both. They must choose, Wolfowtz OR some credibility.
- Read the latest public statements on the Wolfowitz scandal on BIC website.