World Bank 'toadying to the corrupt'

By Xan Rice

Britain's former envoy to Kenya is angry at a £68 million loan to a Government accused of corruption


SIR EDWARD CLAY, the outspoken former British envoy to Kenya, let rip at the World Bank yesterday for lending $120 million (£68 million) to President Kibaki’s Government when it was embroiled in a massive corruption scandal.

In a letter to Paul Wolfowitz, the President of the World Bank, Sir Edward accused the organisation of “toadying to a thoroughly corrupt administration” and said that last week’s loan made a mockery of efforts to stamp out high-level looting.

The loan — which included $25 million to fight graft — was made only days after the leak of a report by Kenya’s former anti-corruption czar, John Githongo, that implicated three Cabinet ministers, including the Vice-President, in scams worth hundreds of millions of pounds. It also alleged that Mr Kibaki knew of the fraud.

Although the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission has summoned the three ministers to appear before it next month, Mr Kibaki has taken no action.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2015864,00.html

...that that isn't how the World Bank is supposed to work. That's how it's always worked.

Western powers prop up some toady in a developing country (or corrupt an existing toady-wanna-be who somehow arrived on their own), they "lend" them a few tens of billions, most of which end up in toady's bank account, and the rest is used to build infrastructure needed for Western economic exploitation (such highways for corporate trucking in countries with few personal cars, etc...).

Then when the toady is inevitably deposed, they make money again out the other end extorting the payments for the loans the former toady was given.

This has happened in more countries than it hasn't when they've been on the receiving end of the World Bank's 'assistance'...

the ambassador's concerns pretty much justified.

one of the recent "revolt at the World Bank" articles suggested (wonder where they got the following spin) that the corruption was that one of the crony appointments of Wolfowitz was "going after corruption" within various departments in the bank, and that the dissatisfaction being reported was really rooted in folks trying to prevent the efforts by Wolfowitz and company to "clean things up." Guess this is how they "Clean things up" - eh?

succinct and to the point.

go to big multinational companies through contracts that let the $$ flow back to cronies.

I am thinking of Wolfowitz's buddy Perle who as head of Bush's Defense Policy Board was making recommendations per invading and rebuilding Iraq while simultaneously creating an investment and consulting firm on "Homeland Security" ventures using his inside info as head of the DPB. Just guessing that on the way to creating the situation you describe that there might also be some inside dealing and getting rich off of the process.

nt

I came to the same conclusion, even without the knowledge that Paul Wolfowitz was at the helm.

I started looking really closely at countries who get loans, and then they are supposed to follow the rules and get competitive bidding for these loans. Guess what? They award these contracts to their friends.

How do I know this? Because I've been researching certain countries to see what they do with these loans. And these are not poor countries!! This is Sweden.

http://www.worldbank.com

click on dg Market, or 'procurement'. It's all corrupt.

Certainly the World Bank is corrupt...just read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins for a fantastic insider's account about what these institutions (ie. World Bank, IMF and WTO) were set up to do.

But the basic story here is that Wolfowitz was sent to the World Bank to essentially institute a coup, exactly as he was charged to do with the CIA and Justice Dept. when he was in the White House. Remember how little support he had for the nomination originally? And then he was swept into the job during a hasty, last-second vote, where most voting members couldn't even attend on the short notice.

Now we're seeing the same theme we saw playing at the CIA a few years back....

Wolfowitz honeymoon at World Bank appears over

"....discontent has begun to simmer, in particular at the appointment by Wolfowitz of former US administration insiders to senior positions as he promotes an aggressive campaign against corruption.

But other job placements have caused a stink, notably the naming this month of Suzanne Rich Folsom as director of the World Bank's Department of Institutional Integrity, its anti-corruption unit.

The Republican lawyer, who is close to the White House, now keeps tabs on all of the Bank's 10,000 personnel in Washington and around the world to ensure they are administering funds cleanly.

Rich Folsom, whose husband leads the International Republican Institute, had already been serving as an adviser in Wolfowitz's private office since June.

Wolfowitz has brought in his Pentagon aide Kevin Kellems, who was also spokesman to Vice President Dick Cheney, as his special adviser and director of strategy for external affairs.

Robin Cleveland, Wolfowitz's new counsellor, was formerly associate director of the Office of Management and Budget in the White House."

Corruption is the ruse for cleaning house within the World Bank. Of course the essential reason for this is obvious: loans are the modern means for enslaving people and even nations. That's what the World Bank has been doing for decades. But in a world that is quickly turning against the NeoCons, it has evidently become very important to protect the most important pieces on the chess-board.

This little troll has all his "bodyguards" in place

Too bad they didn't come closer at the hotel in the green zone.

:wow:

There's a word that needs to be used more often.