Wolfowitz and the World Bank: Democratizer or Kleptocrat?

Wolfowitz and the World Bank: Democratizer or Kleptocrat?
by Charlie Cray

(snip)

How Wolfowitz can be praised for “fighting corruption” and following the rule of law is difficult to fathom, given his track record. As Deputy Secretary of Defense, Wolfowitz somehow managed to ignore the Pentagon’s failure to follow competitive bidding requirements for the reconstruction of Iraq -- an omission that made Halliburton the king of American war profiteers. The Pentagon’s failure to protect American taxpayers has led to an ongoing epidemic of waste and fraud, as well as huge abuses of the “Iraqi people’s” oil revenues which, Wolfowitz assured the House Budget Committee before the war, would alone pay for the country’s reconstruction: “If we liberate Iraq those resources will belong to the Iraqi people.” Instead, billions were siphoned off by the occupational authority (CPA) to pay Halliburton and other U.S. contractors, leaving just $2.9 billion of $20.6 billion in oil-related revenues behind, . (This week Newsweek printed a photo of CPA officials ready to hand out stacks of money, with a caption that reads “Free Fraud Zone.” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7306162/site/newsweek/)

(snip)

In other words, unless Wolfowitz chooses to recuse himself, in his new position he will have a significant say in whether the IAMB will be able to pursue to the end its audit-based investigation which, all signs indicate, would lead back to Wolfowitz’s friends at the Pentagon and Halliburton.

Of course this is just one example, as Nobel Prize-winning ex-Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz has suggested, of how the Bank under Wolfowitz’s leadership is likely to "become an explicit instrument of US foreign policy" around the world. "It will presumably take a lead role in Iraqi reconstruction…. That would jeopardize its role as a multilateral development body."

Under Wolfowitz, any attempts to reform the Bank are likely also off the table. A Bank expert review panel’s recommendation that it stop loaning money for oil, mining and gas projects – already given little weight under current president James Wolfensohn – will be ditched for good in favor of helping jump-start the extraction of Iraq’s “fabulous” oil reserves. And Wolfowitz will be able to use the Bank’s significant resources to influence which countries and companies are involved. Want to guess what company (despite the many instances of bribery and fraud that should lead the bank to debar it) has the inside track?

More at
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0331-24.htm

Charlie Cray is director of the Center for Corporate Policy (www.corporatepolicy.org) and a collaborator on Halliburton Watch (http://www.halliburtonwatch.org). He is co-author of The People’s Business: Controlling Corporations and Restoring Democracy (Berrett-Koehler).

###

Update/Addendum:
"The appointment of Wolfowitz, among the most visible U.S. foreign policy hawks, has been a blow to the bank's reputation and to staff members' self-image as poverty-reducing multilateralists."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0402-05.htm

(IMHO, Wolfowitz + World Bank = GRAND THEFT BANKING!)