I have been very pleased to read that Euro-MPs in Strasbourg have supported a Green proposal calling on the EU Presidency to push for the withdrawal of Paul Wolfowitz as President of the World Bank in the light of the current cronyism scandal.
Speaking after the vote, Green Party MEP Caroline Lucas said: "By digging in his heels and refusing to resign as President of the World Bank, Wolfowitz is dragging the whole organisation into disrepute and further undermining the credibility of its anti-corruption policy. The European Parliament has today added to the mounting pressure to end Wolfowitz's chequered tenure at the helm of the World Bank by calling on the EU Presidency to press the US government for Wolfowitz's withdrawal."
Wolfowitz is on the brink. International support for him has collapsed - but the Bush administration is trying to prop him up. The organisation Avaaz has released a video spoofing the global TV programme "The Office"- with Wolfowitz in the role of the awful boss. Watch the video and sign up here:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/sack_wolfowitz
Over 40,000 from 189 countries have already signed the petition. Please consider adding your name.
Update 18th May: he's gone today!
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Githongo Calls on Wolfowitz to Resign
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Asserting that Western admonitions about corruption to Africa and other developing regions are undermined by the misbehaviour of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, Kenya’s former permanent secretary for ethics and governance, Dr. John Githongo, has called on Wolfowitz to resign his post.
“Corruption in Western capitals and in international financial institutions can do little but fuel the cynicism of corrupt officials in Africa and elsewhere,” said Githongo in a statement prepared for the news media. “When Paul Wolfowitz uses his influence as a US Government official and as president of the World Bank to fill the purse of his paramour (and, by inference, to line his own pockets as well), one can hear the cackling from state houses and presidential palaces all across Africa.”
Githongo said: “Paul Wolfowitz should resign now, before his poor example and bad judgment are emulated by petty dictators and venal middle managers throughout the developing world.”
He added: “Wolfowitz, of all people, should know better than to use his office for enrichment. He should be ashamed of himself.”
Since being forced into exile by a hostile political climate in his native Kenya, John Githongo has been a fellow at St. Antony’s College at Oxford University. In February, he accepted an appointment at Queen’s University in Ontario as a research fellow at the International Development Research Centre, where he is collaborating on a major research initiative on Ethnicity and Democratic Governance.
For further information, contact John Githongo at jgithongo@worldbank.org.
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