As soon as the June 15th deadline for alternative nominations for the World Bank presidency passed, Robert Zoellick, the presumptive nominee, let loose with an attack on Hugo Chavez and Venezuela. Is it a coincidence that Chavez is the Bush Administration’s favorite enemy of the moment? No prizes for guessing whose water Zoellick will be carrying at the World Bank.

June 15th has come and gone and Zoellick is the only game on H street even after calls for a new transparent process of appointing the president of the World Bank have emerged from different sources and countries. According to Reuters, a bank official said the board was expected to meet with Zoellick next week, with an eye toward finalizing the process by June 29 and having the new president in place on July 1 since no other nominations have been submitted. Continue reading →

Principal nominee for president of the World Bank Robert Zoellick is currently laying low after letting it slip two days ago that key positions in the Bank may be filled by his pet cats and rabbits. This comes after stinging criticism of former Bank president Paul Wolfowitz for appointing his own favourites. Continue reading →

As reported by Deep Insider, Monique Barbut was practising some “travails” to get the “dragon-lady” Robin a cushy job at GEF. Guess with only 18 months to go for the Bush Administration, his political followers are not welcomed, as ” must have employees “, with open arms in some corporations and dear Robyn does need a job. However, according to Al Kamen from Washington Post, Robin won’t be an ilk of Monique.

“The job apparently would have meant a two-step demotion in rank as well as a substantial — perhaps six-figure — decline in salary, according to the Government Accountability Project, which has been exposing various misdeeds and shortcomings at the bank.”

Continue reading →

Nominations for World Bank president close today, and barring a miracle, it will be a one horse race.

In Norway yesterday, Zoellick met with development minister Erik Solheim: “The Norwegian principled position is that this should be an open competition where everyone should be able to run – Chinese, Argentinian, whatever, Norwegian for that matter.  We will work with other governments to make such a procedure for future presidential appointments of the World Bank. That said, we think this is a very good proposal of Mr Zoellick as the new president of the World Bank.” Solheim also said that Europe’s prerogative to choose the head of the IMF should also be abandoned. Continue reading →

Liberal Democrat shadow international development secretary, Lynne Featherstone MP, has written to chancellor Gordon Brown and development secretary Hilary Benn calling on the British government to nominate another candidate or “failing that, to instruct the executive director on the board of the World Bank not to support the nomination”. Continue reading →

Amid reports that the Volker Panel’s audit of Suzanne Rich Folsom’s INT is likely to be a whitewash, the Government Accountability Project is doing its own audit. Continue reading →

While it does require some grasp of British geography, a comment by David Woodward in the Guardian brilliantly highlights the absurdity of the leadership selection process and the governance structures of the Bank.

In London on Monday, Zoellick sidestepped questions on whether the US should retain the right to annoint the head of the Bank. The FT reports that when asked if he was likely to do a Wolfowitz by bringing in his own people to key positions in the Bank, he quipped: “I don’t have people. I have two cats and two rabbits.” Which does raise the question of whether they would be better qualified than some of the Wolfowitz appointees. Continue reading →

Now that disgraced about-to-be-former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is about to draw his next-to-last paycheck from the World Bank, you’d expect that the cronies that helped him crash and burn would be planning their own departures.

Not so for “the other woman” Robin Cleveland, whose imperious and superficial role as Senior Counsellor (and whose rich pay of $275,000 tax-free dollars was a damn sight better than what she pulled down as a “third level official” at OMB) is scheming to join the Global Environment Facility.  Or “burrowing in” as they say in the US government.

Robin is conniving with Monique Barbut, the lovely and charmant Chief Executive of the enormous global fund for the environment that is housed in the Bank “investing in our planet”, to keep her excessive and unwarranted salary for another two years as a “team leader”

Have neither of them any shame? Continue reading →