Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Richard Lugar said if the figure presented to his panel by one university professor were accurate, it would seriously undermine the organisation’s efforts to fight global poverty.
The World Bank hotly disputed the figure of $US100 billion, adding that there was no basis for that estimate, but said the organisation was working to stem corruption.
Lugar said, “Other experts estimate that between five per cent and 25 per cent of the $US525 billion that the World Bank has lent since 1946 has been misused. This is equivalent to between 26 billion and 130 billion dollars. Even if corruption is at the low end of estimates, millions of people living in poverty may have lost opportunities to improve their health, education, and economic condition”.
