World Bank to widen job hunt

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz has appointed a committee to find candidates from developing countries for the bank's No 2 position, a step intended to open up a traditionally closed decision-making process for top officials.

In a letter to staff, Wolfowitz said an eight-member committee of World Bank officials would choose candidates to replace managing director Shengman Zhang, who leaves at the end of the year.

Wolfowitz has already made clear he intends to divide Zhang's roles of global operations and strategy into two positions.

The committee is the first major break from tradition by Wolfowitz, who became the bank president six months ago and has been under scrutiny due to his ties to the Bush Administration.

Wolfowitz insists that no major shake-up is planned at the bank, but he is believed to want a more efficient operation based on measurable results, to overcome perceptions of a bloated bureaucracy at the bank.

"I am asking the committee to look for candidates who share our commitment to the Bank Group's mission of poverty reduction, who have extensive experience in developing countries and preferably come from developing countries; and who are dedicated to assuring that the Bank Group is a model of integrity and accountability," he wrote.

"The committee will be supported by an external private search firm which we are in the final stages of selecting."

Graeme Wheeler, the bank's treasurer and a former New Zealand Treasury official, will head the committee and also act as fill-in managing director. He is not a candidate for the post.

Developing countries have long called for a more open selection process of top officials in institutions such as the World Bank and its sister organisation, the International Monetary Fund, which are dominated by wealthy industrial nations.

Committee members are not only drawn from senior management but also the bank's rank-and-file, a move intended to demonstrate the commitment to a wide-reaching selection process.

"The committee represents the Bank Group's regions and network as well as its rich diversity of personnel," Wolfowitz said.

Wheeler is highly regarded inside and outside the bank, overseeing nearly US$20 billion ($28.5 billion) in currencies and more than US$60 billion in assets.

Wolfowitz said Wheeler shared his view that "in addition to core professional competencies, integrity, trust, accountability and respect are the key ingredients which will assure our institutional and individual success and results".

- REUTERS