Corruption- interenational
Is Wolfowitz capable of a counter offensive against corrupiton at the IMF? That was the claim a few weeks ago, although it seems unlikely on the face of it.
Patrick Bond: Wolfowitz's Anti-Corruption Hoax at the World Bank: "With these diverse examples, what can we conclude about the dire state of international financial governance? Wolfowitz cannot be trusted, and although his minor anti-corruption sweep is causing staff anxiety, there is no indication that deeper-rooted problems at the Bank will surface, through, for example, whistleblower protection that is now being widely called for by watchdog groups.
As Charles Abugre of Christian Aid wrote in Pambazuka recently, 'To monitor compliance often requires even greater involvement and power of donors in domestic governance. It is like saying that new forms of colonisation are acceptable on human rights grounds. This is dangerous. Yet, there are cases where human rights abuses, dictatorship and corruption are at such a level that the impact of debt relief and aid will be to strengthen repression and enrich a few than promote development.'"
Dennis Brutus from Jubilee South Africa is in town to launch his fantastic new book, Poetry and Protest (Haymarket Books and UKZN Press). As I talk this dilemma over with him, he offers a very simple proposition: 'It seems to me that both the IMF and Bank are inherently corrupt institutions, because they systematically transfer the wealth of poor countries to the North. While they are asking their clients--dictators and other ruling elites--to clean up their act, our job is still is to demand the abolition of this much more broadly corrupt system.'