IFAD members call for Executive Board meeting to discuss nepotism scandal

 ROME – IFAD’s embattled Managing Director, Carola Alvarez, called an urgent staff meeting of her Office of Development Effectiveness at the UN agency Tuesday to try and refute disclosures by the Italian Insider over multiple allegations of harassment against her and her involvement in the appointment of President Alvaro Lario’s alleged lover to a director level position she created for herself, IFAD sources said.

The staff meeting, attended by Alvarez and Costanza Di Nucci, her Deputy (the Chief Strategy Officer) initially was scheduled for 2 p.m. but then re-scheduled to 4 p.m. as the Italian Insider revelations threw senior management into a massive panic attack as they struggled to respond, the sources said.

 No details of the meeting immediately were disclosed but diplomatic sources said diplomats for donor countries have asked for a meeting of the IFAD Executive Board to be held to discuss the allegations of sexual nepotism that could torpedo the Spanish hungercrat’s bid for a second term at the head of the Rome-based development bank for small farmers.

 “They are in a witch hunt trying to find out the source of the leak instead of focussing on how they will respond to the allegations in the article, which people know to be true,” a veteran IFAD watcher said.

 “IFAD is in a very difficult position because if they try to sue they know there is more dirt that would come up as the article only touched the surface of the deep corruption and misconduct that is taking place,” the observer added.

 “They are running around like headless chickens and have engaged everyone around them to try and find out who is the source. It is a good thing that Senior Management know that it is one of them who has been leaking the information and spreading rumours about the affair.”