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By Groum Abate - Capital
01 May, 2007
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz'sfate will be decided on Monday April 30, after appearing before a panel of seven bank directors that also include Mulu Ketsela, former state minister of Finance and Economic Development. The panel is to make recommendations on his future to the full 24-member board. The board hasn't provided a timeframe for a decision.
Mulu Ketsela is the current Executive Director for 22 African countries.
Acording to the Washington Post, Jorge Familiar, the director representing Mexico and a member of the panel, said its deliberations were ``moving forward,'' and he hoped ``the process would advance soon.'' The other panel members represent France, Ethiopia, China, Norway, the Netherlands and Russia.
According to the Washington Post, members of the panel have already decided to recommend Wolfowitz's departure, citing a senior bank official who wasn't named.
Mulu is Executive Director for Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Mulu, along with the other members of the office, represents these countries in meetings at the World Bank and engages in direct consultations and negotiations with other Executive Officers in efforts to gain support for the World Bank's efforts in reducing poverty.
Mulu last served as the Alternate Executive Director with the World Bank Group until 2006 when she was appointed to the position of Executive Director for 22 African countries. Before joining the World Bank, Mulu facilitated cooperation with bilateral and multilateral partner as the State Minister of Finance and Economic Development for Ethiopia. From 1992-1995 Mulu served as an Economic Consultant for the United Nations Development Programme.
A group of World Bank employees who oversee the agency's campaign to fight corruption in poor nations urged ``clear and decisive actions'' in the probe of President Paul Wolfowitz's decision to arrange a promotion and pay raise for his companion.
``We are deeply concerned by the impact of the current leadership crisis on the bank's credibility and authority,'' 46 employees said yesterday in a letter to Wolfowitz and the bank's board. ``Our own governance standards must be upheld and enforced impartially and without exception,'' the letter said, ``even when they touch the highest levels of this institution.''
The former U.S. deputy defense secretary has made fighting graft a hallmark of his tenure, suspending loans to countries including Chad and India because of concerns that the money might disappear into the pockets of corrupt politicians.
In their letter, the members of the Washington-based agency's Governance and Anticorruption Strategy group said the ``credibility of our front-line staff'' had been undermined. They asked the board ``to resolve this crisis quickly in a way that demonstrates to all our stakeholders the bank's commitment to the highest standards of integrity.''
Three months after Wolfowitz became head of the bank in June 2005, his companion, Shaha Riza, was transferred to the State Department under rules that forbid one partner from supervising another. At the same time, she received a promotion and a 36 percent pay raise while remaining on the World Bank payroll.
According to Bloomberg news agency ``It is a problem when your own resident experts on corruption are stating that the bank is not practicing what it preaches,'' Manish Bapna, director of the Bank Information Center, a Washington-based organization that monitors the agency, said in an interview.
Wolfowitz initially offered to rescue himself from dealings with Riza, a request that was rejected by the board's ethics committee, according to his attorney, Robert Bennett. His subsequent decision to promote Riza and reassign her was made with the approval of the committee, Bennett said.
Paul Wolfowitz was unanimously approved as 10th President of the World Bank Group by the institution’s Board of Executive Directors on March 31, 2005.
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