The World Bank and Corruption

George Ayittey writes in the WSJ about waste and lack of accountability at the World Bank:

In its 40-year involvement in Africa, the Bank scandalously wasted tens of billions in failed programs to spur economic growth, promote democracy and good governance. In the 1960s and 1970s, Bank lending was project specific: roads, dams for generating electrical power, telecommunications, and other public goods with large externalities in agriculture, health care, education and industry. By the mid-1990s, more than 2,200 projects had been undertaken but nearly all were seriously undermined by poor Bank supervision, lack of domestic maintenance or neglect. In 1989, the Bank itself admitted to numerous examples of badly chosen and poorly designed public investments it had funded. Half of its development projects in Africa failed, according to its own evaluation report.

To help carry out its wasteful and ineffective programs, the Bank employs a huge staff of 7,000 bureaucrats, plus a fleet of some 7,000 more consultants.In a feeble attempt at reform the Bank quietly eliminated 600 positions at its Washington, D.C., headquarters in July 1997, to save $96 million over two years. But even this miniscule "adjustment" was fiercely resisted by Bank staff. In 1998, the staff howled when an internal investigation uncovered "alarming information" about kickbacks and embezzlement.