Washington: The White House has begun searching for a successor to outgoing World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz amid questions about the tradition that allows Washington to name an American as the development lender’s leader.
Europeans who were particularly critical of Wolfowitz and backed the drive to oust him from the bank nevertheless continue to support that Washington maintain its role in naming the World Bank president.
But several non-governmental organisations, along with Brazil, South Africa, have called for the replacement search to be opened to non-American candidates and to focus on the person’s competence rather than nationality.
On Saturday Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega called for the selection process to take place “in an open and transparent environment without restriction on the candidates by nationality.”
Australia yesterday joined South Africa and Brazil in urging the US to abide by an agreement of the Group of 20 economic powers to open up selection of the new head of the World Bank to non-American candidates.
Australia said it strongly supported the G20 position that the heads of both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should be appointed using an open, transparent selection process with candidates not restricted by nationality. Leading contenders mentioned in the US media are Robert Zoellick, the former US trade representative and deputy secretary of state, and current Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt.
Also suggested is Bill Frist, the former Republican majority leader in the US Senate, even though his political alignment is not far from that of Wolfowitz, whose credentials as a US conservative and war-hawk clouded his reception at the bank when named in 2005. John Danforth, a former US ambassador to the UN, is also under consideration.
The development community, meanwhile, is suggesting non-American candidates like outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Kemal Dervis of Turkey the current administrator of the UN Development Programme and Trevor Manual, the South African finance minister. White House spokesman Tony Fratto said he did not expect the US decision on the new bank president would come very quickly.
He stressed that the US should retain control of the search for Wolfowitz’s successor, overseen by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
Wolfowitz, accused of personally arranging the extraordinary promotion and salary package for his companion, also a World Bank employee, was forced to announce his resignation on May 17, after six weeks of crisis.
According to an unwritten rule, the US chooses the president of the World Bank while European states designate the head of the IMF, the other institution born out of the 1944 Bretton Woods agreements.
“I did not hear that countries sitting to the board of directors wished to question this practice,” declared Tuesday Jean-Baptiste Mattei, the spokesperson of the French foreign affairs ministry. But Brazil’s Mantega branded the standing practice as an “anachronism which should be ended.”
Non-governmental organisations and development activists say that the current situation offers an opportunity to abolish the rule and base the selection process on merit rather than on the nationality of candidates.
“This is a multilateral institution, and there should be a multilateral process for choosing its head,” said Bernice Romero, advocacy director of Oxfam International. “The US says that it is consulting widely, but this is not enough. Other countries must step forward and name candidates,” she added. (Gulf Times / Qatar / May 28, 2007)
