The World Bank Guyana office should reconsider its priorities, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh says, accusing the Bank’s staff of having “one of the largest appetites for publicity and self-promotion” and seeking to increase their “creature comforts” by relocating to “a grand former colonial residence opposite one of the city’s most fashionable cafés”.

In a scathing attack following a Kaieteur News article last Friday, which quoted the Bank’s Country Representative, Giorgio Valentini as saying that the Bank was never approached for support to the Amaila Falls hydropower project, the Minister said that the Bank’s local office should engage in some serious introspection and reconsider its own priorities, “before venturing into the public domain and commenting on matters beyond the competence of its resident staff”.

According to the Government Information Agency (GINA), Singh said that for years, the World Bank has been a highly valued development partner to Guyana, “operating a small and efficient country office, in modest premises within the UNDP country office, with a small staff of professionals dedicated to the task of aiding development in Guyana”.

In recent months, however, the Minister said, he has observed “a worrying trend of shifting priorities, with the Bank’s office being relocated to a grand former colonial residence opposite one of the city’s most fashionable cafés, the recruitment of new staff including prominently a communications officer, and frequent forays into the media by the head of the country office on all manner of subjects”, a GINA release said.

“I would be much happier if the country office of the Bank expended more effort to increase the Bank’s work and its development impact in Guyana, instead of trying to increase their own visibility and creature comforts. Of all our development partners, the Bank has one of the smallest project portfolios, but one of the largest offices and, it would appear, one of the largest appetites for publicity and self-promotion, even if only recently acquired. Guyana still faces considerable development challenges, and we need the assistance of the World Bank, we don’t need grandstanding by their staff in country,” the Minister was quoted as saying.
In response to Valentini’s statement that the Bank never received a request from Guyana for support for the Amaila Falls project, Singh said that the Bank’s Representative seemed to be unaware that the project is a private sector project, with international investors as the project sponsors.

Any request for support would come in the first instance from the private sponsors of the project and not from the State, although the State would be likely to support any such request, GINA reported.

According to GINA, Singh said that Valentini “should have acquainted himself with the facts before offering an uninformed response”. GINA said that the project sponsors have been engaged in discussions with the Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and other institutions within the World Bank Group, along with several other sources of financial and non-financial support for the project. “Had the Representative bothered to ascertain the facts, he would not have offered such an uninformed response, which only served to feed Kaieteur News’ apparently insatiable appetite for sensational headlines”, the GINA report said.

According to the report, the Minister emphasised that Guyana has valued greatly the work of the Bank over the years, but is firmly of the view that the Bank’s mandate in Guyana would be better served by greater prudence on the part of its staff than has been displayed by its country office recently, including “the most recent media jaunt by the Bank’s Representative”.

“The emphasis must be on improving delivery of assistance and maximising development impact, rather than on increasing visibility and raising personal profile,” the Minister was quoted as saying.