Calls to end U.S. role in naming World Bank chief

Calls to End US Role in Naming World Bank Chief

(05-19) 04:00 PDT Washington -- The departure of Paul Wolfowitz as World Bank president is prompting calls around the globe to revoke the traditional right of the United States to select the institution's leader.
As the White House asserted claims on picking Wolfowitz's successor, aid groups and former bank officials demanded that the next president be selected not in deference to the Bush administration, but on professional merits.
Advocacy groups and development experts took aim at an unwritten rule that has for six decades governed the financial institutions created in the aftermath of World War II: The U.S. president picks the World Bank chief, while Europe selects the head of its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.
"Paul Wolfowitz's problems at the World Bank stem in part from a widespread perception that he disproportionately represents U.S. interests rather than objectives that command a global consensus," declared a letter signed this week by more than 200 people -- including heads of aid organizations -- and sent to the executive boards of the World Bank and the IMF. It called for the traditional arrangement to be "abandoned and replaced with selection procedures that reflect two key principles: transparency of process, and competence of prospective leadership without regard to national origin."

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