The Hindu Business Line : The downside of being Paul Wolfowitz

EVEN as the appointment of US Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz as World Bank President was cleared on Thursday, there was a token protest in front of the Bank's headquarters in Washington as the blossoming cherry trees announced the arrival of spring.

Protestors, dressed in colourful costumes, marched a one-legged horse denoting the one-horse race that the appointment of the new president had turned out to be. But as far as the Bank staff are concerned, it is doubtful if Wolfowitz's appointment is as welcome as the end of the year's long and harsh winter. One senior executive told Business Line that while earlier he did have misgivings about Wolfowitz's credentials, "listening to him on the radio last night, when he promised that he will give his best shot within the parameters of the functions and ideology of the World Bank, made me think that we should give him a chance. After all, there are no doubts about his credentials as a good manager, and he has managed several complex organisations before — and this one is as complex as they come — perhaps he'll do a good job."

But he agreed that it is one thing to say this sitting in the protected environs of the Bank's headquarters, where security is stringent, and quite another "if you are working in the field, in the Middle East or some African country."

A colleague of his agreed. "Quite a few of us are, indeed, concerned about his being a hawk in the Bush administration. But apart from disagreeing with him ideologically, many of the Bank's staff are worried that they will now be the target of terrorist attacks, not because of what the World Bank's projects or ideology, but because of the reputation of its new president. Obviously even here, or wherever he travels, he is going to need much more security than our present President, James Wolfensohn. But while he will get that additional security, what about our safety," she asked.

Others are worried that the bank's reputation will undergo a major "image change ... as now the perception will be that the World Bank is not a multilateral organisation but an arm of the US government, because it is headed by somebody so close to the US President ... and that too one who has no development credentials at all."

According to a column (In the Loop) published in the Washington Post on March 21, the World Bank's staff association, in a confidential e-mail last week, sought to get a sense of the staff's views and concerns on the new president. "Most ... employees raised concerns about the Bank's reputation and effectiveness, the nominee's qualifications, multilateralism" It added that Wolfowitz didn't do too well in the survey, which showed that nearly 86 per cent of those who responded were opposed to him. "The biggest concern about the nomination, we're hearing from bank folks, is over security, especially for those working in the Bank's 100 offices outside Washington. ... Bank employees say that to be effective, they must be out there with the people they are serving, not in fortified bunkers."

But the sting lay in the tail of the column, which concluded thus: "Meanwhile, the day Wolfowitz's nomination was announced, the bank's retirement benefits hotline was so deluged that people couldn't get through to calculate their pensions if they were to quit."

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The downside of being Paul Wolfowitz

F-16? Is it what my accountant gives every year?