Scandal ‘threatens role of World Bank’

The Financial Times ^ | 22 April 2007 | Krishna Guha and Eoin Callan

[Kitten Festival]

The independent agency charged with assessing the effectiveness of the World Bank has issued a searing indictment of Paul Wolfowitz’s leadership, warning that his actions are undermining the bank’s ability to pursue development work.

In a formal statement, which the bank’s board will consider this week, the Independent Evaluation Group said “development effectiveness is being jeopardised by serious governance problems that have recently come to light”.

The IEG statement comes as the board prepares to reach a judgment as to whether Mr Wolfowitz broke bank rules or ethics when he ordered its human resources chief to give his girlfriend Shaha Riza a large pay rise.

Pressure on Mr Wolfowitz to resign intensified today when 42 of the bank’s most senior former executives called on Mr Wolfowitz to step down in an open letter published in the Financial Times. The former executives said “there is only one way for Mr Wolfowitz to further the mission of the bank: he must resign”.

[Kitten Festival]

Scandal threatens the World Bank? Given what Paul's doing, and rightwingers' loathing of multilaterals, maybe that's exactly what Paul wants to be doing, anyone think of that? The Bank certainly will shrink to insignificance if he clings to power by a thread.

[Eva]

According to the WSJ, these are trumped up charges. No, “rightwingers” don’t loathe multi-laterals, union members do. Leftwingers just want to see the US role in the world bank diminished.

[Kitten Festival]

Are you aware of the cozy relationship between Paul and the Journal’s editorial board? They are not disinterested observers. They selectively picked out the parts of the papers they liked and ignored the parts of the papers they didn’t like. All to defend their source at his request, because he was the source of the stuff reported, with many details revealed that only he would know. Paul’s a self-serving guy who does not think the rules other people must follow are the rules he has to follow. Why did he apologize if he was so innocent? Remember, the WSJ articles came only after he admitted blame. Why is it that a system in place to prevent favoritism somehow got twisted around so that the favorite, (Paul’s girlfriend) made off way better than she would have had she not been Paul’s girlfriend? Not just better than most bankers, but better than any of the bankers? Her raise, promotion, promise of ‘outstanding reviews’ (no matter how lousy she was) and promised promotions were way more than any bank employee should ever get - and CERTAINLY more than she was worth. She just had a powerful boyfriend and somehow she did better than anyone else at the bank. It’s pretty disgusting when you think about it.

[ClearCase_guy]

The WSJ piece was very interesting. I hadn't followed the news carefully, all I knew was what the media was telling me and I (alas!) was calling for his head -- it sounded like he egregiously abused his position.

But if the WSJ is correct (and I trust their editors more than I trust the drive-by media) then he is being railroaded.

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1820479/posts

The staff member throwing the stones is Alison Cave, a little-known urban planner who chairs the bank's staff association. Cave has gained notoriety in the bank by taking the unprecedented step of seeking a bank president's resignation.

"We stand up for staff being treated equitably. There shouldn't be favoritism," said Alison Cave, head of the World Bank staff association. Staff members aligned with Wolfowitz have cast Cave as a lone actor motivated by a personal vendetta to oust the president. It is a claim she denies, but her role as leader of the bank's staff association has put her in a face-off with Wolfowitz, who is under fire for overseeing a promotion and pay raise for a woman to whom he is romantically linked.

[Kitten Festival]

The phrase ‘little-known’ is a Wolfie trademark. He loves to call anyone who opposes him ‘little known,’ he’s definitely done it in the past. It shows how obsessed with fame he is. Take that as a hint as to what kind of guy he must be like to work with.

[Fred Nerks]

urban planner who chairs the bank's staff association.

So, how well known could she possibly be?

She's a TOOL!

[the Real fifi]

So, now he’s dictating the story to both the WSJ and the WaPo? HEH

[JasonC]

The world bank doesn't have a role, expect to give away boondoggle soft loans to dictators and notorious deadbeats.

[angkor]

"Her raise, promotion, promise of ‘outstanding reviews’ (no matter how lousy she was) and promised promotions were way more than any bank employee should ever get"

Beg to differ, but employees willing to sign-on for Iraq or any other danger/hardship posting are frequently if not always given very generous enticements to do so.

Danger, hardship, and overseas uplifts can easily total 100 percent of base pay (I've seen it). Extended working hours and/or responsibilities can be and are added for additional compensation. It's not like they're giving you weekends and holidays off in the IZ.

Further, non-contractual offers of promotion or "whichever job you want, wherever you want" upon completion of contract are pretty common. Managers want and need someone there, and if you stick it out you've done them a favor and shown a certain degree of toughness. It's not as if employees are clamoring to go to work in an active combat zone.

So she was going to get paid more than some of the Bank's VP's? So what. Tell them they're being reassigned to Iraq, and see how much they squawk.

[Kitten Festival]

SHE wasn’t going to Iraq - she was sending OTHER PEOPLE to Iraq. She wasn’t the heavy-lifting type and was pretty firm in her belief that only American chattel should fight and die for Arab freedom. For Arabs, freedom is supposed to be free.

[Kitten Festival]

Tool? I think he was probably rude to her, considering her ‘insignificant.’ He does that to a lot of people he considers ‘little people’ and some of them, like her, get mad. That is my theory.

[Kitten Festival]

Paul’s got connections. He’s a political animal, he majored in political science. He does not know jack about economics but he loves the office politics side to things. He just isn’t very good at hiding it, as most power players are.

[the Real fifi]

She probably is insignificant or she wouldn’t be wasting her time at the staff union, frankly.
In any event, this started off as a “scandal” about a specific incident, which seems to have fizzled in daylight, and you keep wanting to make this about anything else anyone throws over the transom.

[Fred Nerks]

Time to go, Mr. Wolfowitz

Posted by Kitten Festival to Lurker

On News/Activism 04/20/2007 11:19:11 PM PDT · 5 of 16

If the Iraq war weren’t such a miserable failure, it would not be an issue.

So, in your own words, it's not the girlfriend and her job you object to, hmm?

[the Real fifi]

Stick around. In five minutes it will be something else.
Kitten raises something, its debunked, then she’ll come up with something else.(My favorite today is that that lefty harridan Margaret Carlson is reflective of Asian opinion.)

[Fred Nerks]

thanks, but I’m not going to stick around for five minutes for more of the same thing!

[Kitten Festival]

No, I object to both. I don’t have to choose and neither can you.

[Kitten Festival]

i think we should go back to the specific incident. Shortly, I will have a lot more to say about it, because I agree with you, there’s too much off topic - starting with the dissembling and obfuscations of the WSJ.

[Fred Nerks]

If the Iraq war weren’t such a miserable failure, it would not be an issue.

You have chosen and our discussion is over.