As Wolfowitz Feels Pressure to Resign, Critics Call for Accountability, Transparency and Democratization of the IFI’s

Institutions’ Edges Fraying as Finance Ministers Gather for Semi-Annual Meetings April 14-15

Apr 11, 2007

For immediate release

April, 13 2007
Contact:
Sameer Dossani (202) 340 0216
Lidy Nacpil (281) 236 9474

The annual spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are scheduled to take place in Washington, DC on April 14-15. These meetings are overshadowed by allegations that the World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, ensured that his longtime partner Shah Riza was given a promotion and pay rise prior to her leaving the World Bank to work at the U.S. State Department. Riza currently earns close to $200,000 per year, more than the head of the State Department, Condaleeza Rice.

“The alleged nepotism here shows the double standard when it comes to corruption,” said Sameer Dossani of the 50 Years Is Enough Network. “Wolfowitz, like his neoconservative allies in the White House and elsewhere, has advanced his agenda by promoting his allies and friends. If this were taking place in an African government, we would hear the usual lines about corruption standing in the way of development. Where is the accountability here? If the World Bank is serious about good governance it will have to first give itself a dose of its own medicine: fire Wolfowitz, end the dubious practice of letting the U.S. administration of the day appoint the World Bank president, and take measures to ensure meaningful transparency, accountability and democracy within the institutions themselves.”

Critics have linked this debacle to the ongoing crisis of relevance within the World Bank and the IMF. In Europe, some countries are starting to break from following the institutions’ lead on the question of economic conditions. “In response to our campaigns, the government of Norway has announced that it will not tie its aid to economic conditions,” said John Jones of Networkers South-North “While there is still a long way to go, actions like those of Norway and the UK are a logical outcome of reports that have been coming from the Bank for years. These reports state that the policies have been a failure for poverty reduction and economic growth. It is time to allow space for countries to determine their own destinies.”

Well known Philippine activist and International Coordinator of Jubilee South, Lidy Nacpil went one step further. “It is true that the conditions don’t make sense, but it is also true that these policies have been the cause of untold suffering in the Global South. There must be some accountability, some form of reparations, especially for the most egregious of the IMF’s and World Bank’s sins. Millions of the most oppressed and impoverished people have been made to pay for their suffering twice. First, through the vital support these institutions gave to keep dictatorships in power such as Marcos in my own country, Mobutu in Zaire/Congo, Somoza in Nicaragua and, the apartheid regime in South Africa, and second, through debts that have prevented governments from providing basic social services for decades.”

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