CGD vice president Dennis de Tray was quoted in this Reuters article, discussing the World Bank's latest document outlining the Bank's approach to handling corruption in recipient countries.
From the article:
Dennis de Tray, vice president of the Washington-based Center for Global Development and a former World Bank director in Central Asia, said tackling corruption required patience.
"Anyone who thinks these problems are going to be fixed quickly, simply doesn't understand ... these countries in which corruption is a problem," de Tray said.
He said the World Bank needed a system to measure whether a country was making progress in the corruption fight.
"We need concrete measures of progress and that doesn't mean zero corruption, which is an impractical standard to apply to a decision about staying engaged or not," de Tray added.
He said corruption was not the problem of one person but a problem with a government system.
"If the bank's approach to engagement is one in which it understands the long-term nature of the challenge and the need for intermediate targets, particularly the need to support good (government) teams that are doing their best in difficult environments, it will be a good strategy," he said.
"If it insists on outcomes that are unattainable, the strong commitment by governments will fail," he added.
