FT社评 世行应改革行长选任程序

The World Bank demands transparent, meritocratic governance of those countries that seek its assistance. It has yet to apply those principles to the appointment of its own president. In 2012, emerging economies led a serious challenge to the traditional US monopoly of the appointment, fielding credible, heavyweight candidates.

世界银行(World Bank)要求寻求其援助的国家采取透明、选贤任能的治理方式。然而该行在选任自己的行长时，却尚未应用上述原则。世行行长的任命，一向由美国把控。2012年，新兴经济体曾带头对这一局面发起正式挑战，选派了多名够格的重量级候选人参与角逐。

Yet in the end the job went to Jim Yong Kim, the last-minute choice of the Obama administration, who had an admirable record in academia and public health, but no experience of economic development or of running such a large and complex organisation.

不过，最终这一职位由金镛（Jim Yong Kim，上图）获得。金镛是奥巴马(Obama)政府在最后关头的选择，他在学术界和公共健康领域有着令人钦佩的履历，但缺乏经济开发领域的经验，也没有掌管过一家如此庞大、复杂的组织。

Four years on, the World Bank’s staff are trying to pre-empt any move to wave through Mr Kim’s reappointment for a second term. They are calling for an end to the backroom deals that, for decades, have installed an American at the head of the World Bank and a European at the International Monetary fund; and they warn that, without reform of the process, the World Bank risks becoming an anachronism.

四年过去了，如今世行员工正试图抢先一步，阻止任何以蒙混过关的方式让金镛获得连任的举动。他们呼吁结束幕后交易，几十年来，这些幕后交易使得世行行长一直是美国人、国际货币基金组织(IMF)总裁一直是欧洲人。世行员工还警告称，如果不改革这一程序，世行可能会落伍。

This level of internal discontent is troubling. The World Bank is a perennially fractious institution and its sprawling bureaucracy is undeniably in need of reform. But even by the standards of previous reorganisations, the changes instigated by Mr Kim have been protracted and poisonous, leading to the departure — both forced and voluntary — of many senior officials.

如此程度的内部不满令人不安。世行长期以来一直是个难以控制的机构，其庞大的官僚机构无疑需要改革。然而，即使以之前几次重组的标准来看，金镛发起的改变也是拖沓而有害的，导致了许多资深官员的离职——既有被迫离职的，也有自愿离职的。

More worrying still is Mr Kim’s failure to redefine the Bank’s mission, and restore its relevance in a world where middle-income countries, traditionally its biggest clients, can raise finance in global capital markets or go to nimbler regional development banks. The internal shake-up was long on management fads and short on substance. Mr Kim has launched admirable initiatives, such as a $500m fund to help fight future pandemics. But this does not amount to a coherent strategy. There have also been signs of mission creep, with the World Bank engaging in crisis lending to countries hit by the commodities slump, a role that would usually be filled by the IMF.

更令人担忧的是，金镛未能重新定义世行的使命，也就是在这个中等收入国家（这些国家传统上是世行的最大客户）能从全球资本市场或更灵活的地区开发银行融得资金的时代恢复世行的重要性。世行的内部改革有很多是管理层的一时兴起，少有实质性改变。金镛曾发起一些令人钦佩的动议，比如一笔5亿美元的基金，用于帮助对抗未来的传染病。然而，这些举动并未形成一种连贯的策略。此外，还有迹象显示世行的使命正在悄悄改变——该行参与危机贷款发放，向遭受大宗商品暴跌打击的国家放贷，而这一角色通常是由IMF扮演的。

Whatever one thinks of Mr Kim’s record in office, there is no question about the need to open up the opaque process by which he was appointed. The World Bank’s legitimacy in the eyes of the developing world has long been undermined by US dominance. This has provided a justification for China gradually to usurp its role, through bilateral lending and through sponsorship of competing institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

不论人们如何看待金镛任内的工作，毫无疑问的是，世行需要开放不透明的行长选任程序（当初正是这一程序让金镛获得了任命）。长期以来，美国对世行的把持一直在削弱该行在发展中国家眼中的合法性。这也为中国逐步取代美国所扮演的角色提供了正当理由，中国取而代之的方式是双边借贷以及倡导成立亚洲基础设施投资银行(AIIB)等与世行竞争的金融机构。

Other international institutions are rising to the challenge, with the competition for the post of UN secretary-general opened up to scrutiny and subject to explicit diversity objectives.

其他国际机构也正在接受这一挑战——联合国(UN)秘书长一职的角逐已公开接受监督，并要满足明确的多元化目标。

The rules governing the appointment of the World Bank president are not prescriptive, so it would be entirely possible for the board to decide on a more open and meritocratic procedure. The right course would be to allow a search committee to draw up a shortlist of candidates, rather than leaving it to powerful shareholders to jump in with their own nominations. But voting weight on the board will still determine the final decision. No matter how strong the shortlist, it will make no difference if the result is still a backroom stitch-up by western countries.

支配世行行长选任的规则并非强制性的，因此，世行董事会决定采取更开放、选贤任能的程序是完全可能的。适当的程序是让一个人才搜寻委员会拟定一份终选候选人名单，而不是任由强大的股东推出他们自己的提名候选人。不过，最终决定仍会由在董事会中的投票权重支配。不论终选候选人名单的阵容多么强大，如果最终结果仍然由西方国家的幕后交易决定，情况不会有任何不同。

The US refusal to relax its stranglehold on the World Bank presidency is understandable but short-sighted. No matter who runs the Bank, the US will remain the biggest shareholder, with immense influence. Yet if it continues to view the institution purely as an instrument of American power, it will weaken the World Bank’s shaky credibility, to its own detriment.

美国拒绝放开对世行行长一职的把持是可以理解的，但这种行为十分短视。不论谁掌管世行，美国都依然是最大的股东，对世行有着巨大的影响力。然而，如果美国继续将该机构视为自己施展权力的工具，它会削弱世行摇摇欲坠的可信度，损害美国自己的利益。