Finally?

The announcement late yesterday that World Bank president, Mr. Paul D. Wolfowitz would bow out as president may not end the crisis that began with his presence at the Bank if the Bush White House appoints a replacement who will try to continue to implement what many staffers see as an ideologically motivated right-wing agenda. From the very outset when the scandal over Mr. Wolfowitz’s role in the transfer of his girlfriend to the US State Department from the Bank on a spectacular salary scale broke out, Ikengacomments has consistently indicated that his problems at the Bank has very little to do with the scandal. His antecedents were grounds for the dislike that Bank staffers developed for him prior to his arrival. He basically confirmed their worst fears when upon his arrival he energetically used what they saw as the same arrogant, insensitive, and high-handed management style that they associate with the Bush White House to implement an agenda that the staffers felt unbecoming of the Bank.

A Bank staffer who spoke to Ikengacomments then disclosed that several Bank employees resigned very quickly because they couldn’t deal with his outlandish style. In a chat with Ikengacomments yesterday, the same Bank staffer emphasized that although reports in the media have focused mostly on the scandal, the biggest concern in the Bank is Mr. Wolfowitz’s emphasis on and preference for anti-terrorism projects in the non-European parts of the world where they believe the Bank should focus on anti-poverty projects. The staffer specifically mentioned education, health care related, and other such projects that have been defunded or over-looked by the Bank ever since Mr. Wolfowizt became president.

The crisis may not be over yet if Mr. Wolfowitz is replaced with another individual who will want to proceed like him. The Bank staffers’ insistence that Mr. Wolfowitz does not need to wait until the end of June to depart is a signal that they would want the Bank to quickly return to its established mission as a catalyst in the quest to eradicate world poverty, as opposed to becoming another mega-tool in the ‘War against Terrorism’.