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Letter to the Editor, Irish Times, 24th April 2006
Madam,
People must find it increasingly difficult to understand the World
Bank's contradictory policy on corruption.
In recent months the bank's front man, Paul Wolfowitz, correctly
noted that governance and accountability are central to development.
He announced that he would not deal with corrupt governments. This
clear public stance was based on exhaustive research showing that
corruption impedes growth and poverty reduction.
Yet within weeks, Wolfowitz approved a $37 billion debt relief
package for 17 countries - including some of the most corrupt, such
as Rwanda, Mozambique, and Uganda.
The unconditional nature of debt relief, which places the onus
on governments to ensure that savings genuinely assist the poor,
is a major cause for concern. Supporters of debt relief naively
believe that the money it releases will find its way to the poorest
of the poor in African countries.
In this naïve world view, there are no corrupt rulers, no
corrupt governments and no nasty armies. Instead there are governments
whose only constraints are the funds which, if they did not have
to spend on servicing debt, they would spend on food, medicine and
schoolbooks.
But the reality of African politics, with governments which are
guilty of shocking human rights abuses and endemic and unchallenged
corruption, is quite different.
Yours, etc,
JOHN O'SHEA, Goal, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
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