50% of Bank senior staff have left: how many more would stay?. This is not a tabloid encouragement that, if Wolfowitz wins, the last Bank staffer to resign should turn off the lights.* It's just a late (for me) recognition that Wolfowitz has not only been very clumsy in hiring people, but also in letting them go. Half of the Bank's senior management have left already in the 23 months since Wolfowitz joined. Can you imagine how many more would leave if he somehow finds a way to stay on?

Others, including Bloomberg, have been onto this for a while. They reported last December:
"Half of the bank's 29 highest-level executives have departed since Wolfowitz, the former U.S. deputy Defense secretary and an architect of President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, took office in June 2005. Among them is Christiaan Poortman, vice president for the Middle East and a 30-year World Bank veteran, who left in September after resisting pressure to speed up the pace of lending and adding staff in Iraq".

"Among those who left the bank after disagreements with Wolfowitz are Roberto Danino, general counsel and a former prime minister of Peru; Ian Goldin, vice president for external affairs; and Gobind Nankani, vice president for Africa. Of the 14 executives who left, three had reached mandatory retirement age, according to the staff association".

World Bank Staff Association Chair Alison Cave has previously expressed strong concerns about some of these departures from the Bank. She will be available to journalists this afternoon to give the perspectives of Bank staff. You can contact her on: (+1) 202 473-3952.

See also the very useful Wolfowitz Watch updates by the Bank Information Center, and articles from the Bretton Woods Update.

* Just before the 1992 general election in Britain, The Sun orchestrated a campaign against the Labour Party and its leader Neil Kinnock. On election day, its front page carried a photograph of Mr. Kinnock's head encased by a lightbulb. The headline read: "If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights".

Alex Wilks ~ April 15, 2007

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