What’s the Wolfowitz Story?
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I will admit that when I first heard the news that Paul Wolfowitz was being proposed by the Americans for Chairman of the World Bank I was quite dismayed by the choice of a man so tainted by an ongoing and catastrophic war and I could not see this appointment as anything that could construed as beneficial to the standing of this important world institution whose credibility is fundamental to its operation. So I’m not entirely surprised that things have not exactly gone swimmingly well for Mr. Wolfowitz but with the secrecy of the bank and the spin of his political enemies its hard to gauge exactly what has happened.
In all fairness he did go to the ethics committee over his relationship with Shaha Riza and in that respect he was in-between a rock and a hard place but they didn’t advise him to give her such an extra-ordinary pay rise. It seems like it was a bit of a stitch-up by disgruntled members of the bank but then one which he thoroughly deserved as it seems that he had been filling top positions in the back with his cronies for months.
There have been suggestions that it was his anti-corruption programme has something to do with his problems however it is important to note that he inherited this ongoing campaign with support from the board. Where perhaps he fell foul of his critics was his sometimes inconsistent decisions regarding his application of this programme, perhaps he felt bound by allegiances to the US administration in those choices but failed to appreciate fully that poverty (the main remit of the bank) and corruption generally go hand in hand and those choices had to be carefully made.
Take a look at this story from the Huffington Post from January of this year and it all becomes apparent that he was quite unsuitable for this position and knee deep in nepotism.
In recent months, picking up steam in recent weeks, there has been a massive exodus of top talent from the World Bank. According to reports, the senior Ethics Officer at the Bank has departed. Also on the exit roster are the Vice President for East Asia & Pacific, the Chief Legal Counsel, the Bank’s top Managing Director, the Director of Institutional Integrity (which monitors internal and external corruption), the Vice President for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development, and the head of ISG (Information Solutions Group).
According to one senior insider who feels as if Wolfowitz is gut-punching the most talented teams at the bank and indicated that morale is plummeting, “Wolfowitz just does not talk to his Vice Presidents. He speaks to a few close advisors — Kevin Kellems, Robin Cleveland, Karl Jackson, some others — but a lot of very good people are leaving.”
The man is a disaster and it looks like its good all around that he’s leaving.
Your spam code is not working, Wolfie.
Yes, Wolfowitz is one political appointment which went horribly wrong. Not all the cabal have talent, after all.
I’m not sure there was any real hope that he would or even that he was meant to. People have been distracted by the affair and his quizzical decisions regarding his anti-corruption campaign.
I think he was always intended as a Trojan Horse to get more people who are likely to be amenable to White House persuasion into key positions at the World Bank before being ousted. As far as that goes it seems like he’s been quite successful.