Uncovering the World Bank’s loan programs in the developing world in The World Bank and the Gods of Lending, author Steve Berkman finds nothing but mismanagement and hypocrisy: decades of assistance without any significant improvement in the lives of the poor; billions loaned for improving governance, health care and education with little to show for it; and donor funds given to dysfunctional government institutions or officials with a history of looting national treasuries. With sixteen years as a Bank staff member and consultant, Berkman presents compelling evidence of deceptive reporting and lack of due diligence as billions of dollars are wasted every year on corrupt and ill-conceived programs.

Using internal reports and memos, project documents and the Bank’s Annual Reports as reference, Berkman demonstrates management’s obsession with lending despite the high fiduciary risks involved. Taking the reader inside several project fraud investigations, he exposes the ease with which funds can be stolen from the Bank’s portfolio, and the degree to which these thefts are ignored. Painting a picture of an institution that is run by a bloated bureaucracy, The World Bank and the Gods of Lending proposes changes that will rouse the Bank from its bureaucratic complacency and restore its central mission of alleviating poverty.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Broken Promises and the Gods of Lending; 1) Managing for Mediocrity; 2) The Economist Managers; 3) Confucius and the Bank; 4) Feeding the Beast; 5) Groping in the Dark; 6) And Darkness was Upon the Face of the Implementers; 7) A Very Special Account; 8) Playing with the Books; 9) "C" is for Corruption; 10) As the Train Left the Station; 11) A New Regime; 12) The Potemkin Village; 13) Death by a Thousand Cuts; 14) Alhaji the Car Dealer; 15) Bigger than Wal-Mart; 16) Lamin Tells All; 17) In the Eye of the Beholder; 18) And the Dance Begins; 19) The Fifty Year Dilemma; 20) The Cost of Corruption; 21) So Easy to Steal; 22) The Essence of Knowledge; 23) Reporting the Truth; 24) Money Can’t Buy Happiness; 25) Taming the Gods of Lending