Africa: As Wolfowitz Saga Nears Endgame, Campaigners Demand Meaningful Reform

press release

Washington, D.C. — As the World Bank’s Board of Directors takes further steps to censure World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz for granting a pay rise to his longtime partner, Shaha Riza, World Bank campaigners are demanding more than merely another U.S. replacement for Wolfowitz. Activists eager to see Wolfowitz out of the World Bank, will converge at the World Bank’s headquarters tomorrow at 12pm to bid a “fond farewell” to the beleaguered World Bank President.

“The Wolfowitz scandal is a symptom of a much deeper problem,” said Sameer Dossani of the 50 Years Is Enough Network. Referring to the “gentleman’s agreement” which allows the U.S. to appoint the head of the World Bank, while Europe appoints the head of the IMF, Dossani said “The head of the World Bank Group, ostensibly the most important position in development financing, should not be the unilateral decision of the U.S. If the World Bank has any hope of recovering from this ordeal, it must at least make some attempt at developing transparent and democratic procedures for hiring its own President.”

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