May 02, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 14, 1428

WASHINGTON: Paul Wolfowitz’s struggle to remain World Bank president has thrown a harsh spotlight on a 60-year-old convention of having only Americans head the global lender and may speed changes in the selection process.

The former deputy US defence chief had numerous critics when the Bush administration proposed in 2005 that he take the helm at the poverty-fighting World Bank, primarily because he was a key architect of the policy that led to war with Iraq.

His controversial past made him a unique lightning-rod for dissent over an informal pact that lets the United States pick the leader of the World Bank, while Europe’s nominee leads its sister global institution, the International Monetary Fund.

Wolfowitz complained on Monday that he is the victim of an unjustified “smear campaign” for how he handled a pay raise and promotion for a bank-employed girlfriend, and supporters claim European opponents are orchestrating a bid to unseat him.The Wall Street Journal editorialised that Wolfowitz’s treatment “fits the pattern of what is ever more clearly a Euro-railroad job,” noting the World Bank panel looking into the promotion is headed by a Dutch government representative.

“Evidently the Europeans are the ones who most clearly want Paul Wolfowitz to resign,” said Nancy Birdsall, president of the Washington-based Center for Global Development. “But to use the expression that it is European-orchestrated seems to imply that there is something more to it than there is ... and I don’t think it goes back to Iraq.”

Wolfowitz on Monday implied he might consider quitting at some point, but only if cleared of any wrongdoing in how he handled his girlfriend’s promotion and pay raise.

Birdsall and others are looking past Wolfowitz’s tenure, whether abbreviated by resignation or not, toward the bank’s future and are questioning whether the practice of having an American head it, as has been the case since 1946, makes sense.

“In today’s world, the old side agreement should be jettisoned and replaced with selection procedures that reflect two key principles: transparency of process and competence of prospective leadership,” Brookings Institution senior fellow Ralph Bryant wrote on Monday.

“If the world community acts sensibly, the choice will not be, as in the past, determined by the US government alone,” Bryant said of Wolfowitz’s successor.—Reuters