Oxfam’s Elizabeth Stuart said: “Dr. Kim is an excellent choice for World Bank president and a true development hero. But we’ll never know if he was the best candidate for the job, because there was no true and fair competition.”
“The world deserved better than a selection process with a forgone conclusion. Poor and emerging countries are insisting the Bank be more accountable and open in how it does business. This sham process has damaged the institution, and sullied Dr. Kim’s appointment.”
FT reports that “South Africa on Monday expressed serious concerns about the transparency of the process to select the next head of the World Bank”
Pravin Gordhan, South Africa’s finance minister told reporters “From what I’m hearing there are serious concerns about the levels of transparency. And when we link that to the third element, which is has this process met the merit-based criteria, I think we are going to find that the process falls short,”
Nothing from Dr. Kim so far.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will be on CNN’s GPS with Fareed Zakaria this Sunday at 10am and 1pm EST. Here’s an excerpt of what she had to say: Continue reading
Sources tell me that despite the fact that the board met today for what was planned to be a discussion on the merits of the two remaining candidates, Jim Yong Kim and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, no such discussion took place, with only the African directors speaking for Ngozi. Ocampo hit the bull’s eye when he said in his withdrawal statement “… as we approach the final phase of this process, it is clear that it is becoming no longer a competition on the merits of the candidates but a political exercise.”
So the Obama who told the American people 4 years ago “yes we can”, is now telling the rest of the world “no, you really cant”. He may talk the talk, but he sure does not walk the walk.
News flash just off the wires few minutes ago by Lesley Wroughton and Tiago Pariz at Reuters. Here is the full report.