World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz told the Banks board of directors last week that he intended to tackle serious corruption problems in an institution that in its last fiscal year committed more than 20 billion US dollar in loans and grants to alleviate poverty in developing countries, reports the World Bank press review Monday.
– By problems, I mean very precisely clear-cut cases of bribes, kickbacks, manipulation of the contracting process, fraudulent procurement, Wolfowitz said.
He told the board, which is composed of representatives of the banks 184 country shareholders: – This is not just an annoyance on our main work or a side issue…The whole subject of governance and accountability are really central to development and therefore having our own house in order is a central foundation of our work.
Senior advisers to Wolfowitz say the new president is beginning to tackle problems that have long been allowed to fester. As of last October, they said, there were 387 unresolved internal investigations, involving cases ranging from corruption to sexual harassment. Of those, 243 had been open for at least a year.
They said the complaints were from staff who had not received the promotions they expected. – There is new blood being brought into the system, and that creates a lot of motive, said one adviser.
These tensions have been highlighted by allegations that Suzanne Rich Folsom, who was named last week to head the Department of Institutional Integrity – which has formal responsibility for corruption and ethics investigations – sought to bypass internal rules for examining staff e-mail as part of corruption investigations.
Mr Wolfowitz said those alleging violations of e-mail procedure “are trying to get me not to be tough on these issues. I just would like to say I do not intend to be intimidated”.
– We are in a transition, but I think it is extremely important that we be moving from talking about corruption to dealing with corruption, he noted.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
