Cowen should insist on World Bank reform

THE crisis surrounding the departure of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz has exposed the antiquated leadership selection arrangement in place at the bank.

This archaic selection procedure allows its most powerful member, the US, to hand pick the president of the institution.

The Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, as our representative at the World Bank, should now move quickly to insist that this system is ended.

The minister should fight for an open and transparent selection process that identifies the new leader of the World Bank based on his or her capacity to do the job. In order to demonstrate a real commitment to reform of the World Bank selection process, Mr Cowen should also call on European governments collectively to relinquish the equally outmoded arrangement that allows them to select the head of the World Bank’s partner institution, the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Mr Wolfowitz’s resignation comes too late and merely scratches the surface of the need for root-and-branch reform of the World Bank governance and voting arrangements.

The silence of our finance minister on such fundamental bad governance in an institution that represents a key channel for Irish aid spending is completely unacceptable.

Nessa Ní Chasaide

Co-ordinator

Debt and Development

Coalition Ireland

All Hallows

Grace Park Road

Drumcondra

Dublin 9