The heroic Internal Communications team that is monitoring the internal bulletin boards is cracking down on comments posted about the Bank’s senior management. Two postings about General Counsel Ana Palacio’s flouting of the Staff Rules about political activities, including one with a link to worldbankpresident.org were removed, without acknowledgement. Another has just gone up, but how long will it stay?

By contrast, a posting on the EXT at 10:10 Washington time was still there two hours later. It asks pointed questions about what was going on while Kevin Kellems was running the Bank’s communications shop. Some very interesting issues (reformatted for easier reading): Continue reading →

The Government Accountability Project has been able to obtain a board report suggesting that the newly appointed Country Manager to Iraq, Simon Stolp may not be the best candidate. Continue reading →

World Bank General Counsel has broken a staff rule prohibiting staff from political interference in member countries. Along with other former EU foreign ministers, she signed a letter to the International Herald Tribune on May 16 “To the Turkish people from their European friends” Continue reading →

President Bush spells it out. “I do think it’d be good to have an American run the bank”. He said this to the BBC in response to questions about whether Tony Blair could get the job. Mr Bush added that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is in charge of the search for Mr Wolfowitz’s successor, and will compile a short list for the president.

The Dutch executive director at the World Bank, who led the committee that completed the report on the Wolfowitz Fiasco, and the Dutch Development Minister, who has been one of the more outspoken officials calling for an open process to select the next WB president, spoke to the Dutch media, as reported in English in an article from South African Press Agency (SAPA). Continue reading →