Washington, September 13:

The World Bank (WB) plans to review its anti-corruption unit, whose practices were seen as discretionary and lacking transparency under the tumultuous presidency of Paul Wolfowitz.

An independent panel found in a report released today that ‘severe strains’ between the Department of Institutional Integrity and other bank departments at times hurt the lender’s relations with borrowing countries.

The bank’s new president, Robert Zoellick, welcomed the report from the panel of six experts led by former US Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker. “There are a number of things that need to get fixed,” Zoellick acknowledged. “We want to examine all the Volcker report recommendations, and frankly from my quick look at those. I didn’t see anything that I have any problem with,” he said.

Wolfowitz had made eliminating corruption one of his priorities, but he was forced to step down in June after an internal probe fou-nd he violated rules by arranging a lucrative pay-and-promotion package for his partner. Before resi-gning over the scandal, his two-year long tenure at the helm of the bank was mar-ked by criticism from bank staff, shareholders and borrowers.