Controversy surrounding the bonus of a French officer of the Bank … – Le Figaro

Controversy surrounding the bonus of a French officer of the Bank … – Le Figaro

The World Bank has granted bonuses to at least four of its senior executives, including former chief financial officer of Societe Generale, while it is engaged in a major cost-cutting plan, prompting and a great deal of controversy within the institution.

A Washington

A week the meeting in Washington of its shareholder countries, and in full austerity, the World Bank is facing a puzzling controversy. The bonus of 94,000 dollars earned during the 2014 fiscal year, its chief financial officer, the French Bertrand Badre, is released immediately and heavily criticized by the staff association of the bank. At least three other “senior” of the bank whose mission is to “fight poverty” also received bonuses, but their names have not yet been published.

Recruited in March 2013, the former CFO of Societe Generale, is in fact one of the numbers of the two multilateral institution employing some 10,000 people. As such, he is already receiving an annual salary of $ 379,000, net of tax. Bertrand Badre was instructed by the head of the multilateral institution, Jim Yong Kim, to reorganize the bank and find $ 400 million in savings over the next three years on a budget of $ 5 billion. “At a time of insecurity on employment, reduction of personnel and austerity cures, we express our perplexity to blindness including President Kim and his executives are showing by distributing bonus” laments in a memorandum the staff association.

The latter often has in the past criticized the leadership of the World Bank. Generally, it is to protest against reforms that seem detrimental to the performance of its mission of development finance him. In 2007, its mobilization had helped him to resign the president at the time, Paul Wolfowitz, which had allegedly worked to his mistress, bank employee, key high fees.

“The moral of my former colleagues at the moment is very low”

This is not the first time the staff of the World Bank s Alarm savings we want to implement and affect personnel. “The moral of my former colleagues at this time is very low,” explains a former senior executive of the institution. “Jim Yong Kim, an expert on health issues, was appointed by Barack Obama to remake the World Bank’s main instrument to eradicate poverty in the world. But he is surrounded by people outside the bank, foreign to its culture, of course, begin to impose plans and cutting back stupidly blind savings in overhead. These people do not know where there is fat to cut and not have seen what worked well and many departments and what departments working little and badly. This case bonus will not fix things, “says the expert of the institution.

Stung, the management of the World Bank defends its choice. “The World Bank needs to attract and retain knowledge leaders of the highest caliber. We extend, on rare occasions, “bonuses of exceptional ability” to highly technical or management positions in our key, “said the spokesman of the institution. He said Bertrand Badre who was also Chief Financial Officer of Credit Agricole, is quite the profile, given its “deep experience in some of the largest financial institutions in Europe.”