Trump's controversial pick to lead World Bank could spark revolt

President Donald Trump's controversial choice to lead the World Bank could spark a revolt against US dominance of the institution and spur other members to unite behind an alternate candidate.

The White House has confirmed to fellow Group of Seven nations that Trump will nominate US Treasury official David Malpass, a person familiar with the matter told AFP, intending to maintain US control of one of the leading global bodies.

The Washington-based lending institution has been led by an American since the bank's founding in the aftermath of World War II, while its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, has always been led by a European.

In recent years, the growing emerging market countries have challenged this unwritten arrangement, demanding a more open, merit-based selection process.

Experts on the process had thought it unlikely those countries would join forces against the US candidate, but agreed they might react more strongly to Malpass, a strident critic of the World Bank and IMF who has called their lending "corrupt."
Justin Sandefur, senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, said Malpass "has committed economic malpractice on a wide range of topics, from dismissing the first signs of the 2008 global financial crisis to flirting with the abolition of the IMF."
And in testimony before Congress in November 2017, he said the World Bank and IMF were "often corrupt in their lending practices, and they don't get the benefit to the actual people in the countries" but to those "who fly in on a first-class airplane ticket to give advice to the government officials."
"I also think that ultimately institutions are better served by having a credible person running them regardless of their nationality," Sobel told AFP. Masood Ahmed, who had a long career at the World Bank and IMF, and now is the president of the Center for Global Development in Washington, warned that failure to select a leader through a "truly merit-based" process, "ends up eroding a little further the legitimacy and credibility of the organization."