In a commentary published in The Washington Post, columnist Sebastian Mallaby writes that nine months into his tenure as President of the World Bank, there are strong hints of fresh thinking from Paul Wolfowitz on corruption.
Now the evidence has reached critical mass: The change appears to be genuine, writes Mallaby, according to the World Bank press review Monday.
– The Bank has held up 800 million US dollar in lending to Indian health projects. Indian politicians were said to have their hands on the health funds, so Wolfowitz blocked the loans.
– The Bank has frozen lending to Chad, whose government had reneged on a promise to spend its oil revenue on poverty reduction. It took some courage to admit that the curse of oil remained unbroken.
– The Bank has cancelled 14 road contracts in Bangladesh because of corrupt bidding. Two government officials have since been fired, and Wolfowitz plans to ban the private firms involved from future World Bank contracts.
– The Bank has frozen five loans to Kenya because of corruption, though it did go ahead with a project to improve Kenyas financial management.
– The Bank has interrupted a project in Argentina that topped up the wages of poor workers. Some of the money seems to have greased the ruling Peronist Partys electoral machine before elections in 2003, and the government has brought charges against one senior official and fired 10 others.
– Finally, the Bank has postponed debt relief for Congo.
A team from the International Monetary Fund had certified that the country deserved relief, and the Bank was supposed to fall in line last Thursday. But a newspaper report about the Congolese presidents extravagant hotel bills was passed around by Wolfowitzs top staff, who noted that KPMG, the firm that audits Congos state oil company, had refused for three years running to sign off on its financial statements.
On Tuesday Wolfowitz called the IMFs boss and asked whether Congo really merited debt relief. On Thursday he refused to go ahead with it.
In sum, Wolfowitzs World Bank presidency, which had seemed to lack an organizing theme, has acquired one.
The new boss is going to be tough on corruption, and he is going to push this campaign beyond the confines of the World Bank; on Saturday he persuaded the heads of several regional development Banks to join his anti-corruption effort.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
