Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1992 - 1993 (Creation)
Level of description
Series
Extent and medium
2.80 linear feet of textual records; 9 audio tapes
Context area
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
In February 1992, Lewis Preston ordered a study of the Bank's basic portfolio management and evaluation process for loans and credits. Headed by Willi Wapenhans, who was assigned to the President's office for the study, the Portfolio Management Task Force produced a report in September 1992 that is one of the most famous in the Bank's history. It argued that the Bank did not pay enough attention to the implementation and supervision of loans and that sustainable development impact is the true measure of success. The Wapenhans Report, as it came to be known, was presented to the Board of Executive Directors in November 1992. In January 1993 Preston assigned Visvanathan Rajagopalan, who as a vice president who had been a member of the advisory council to the Task Force, to coordinate discussions regarding the implementation of the recommendations in the Task Force report.
The files are in 2 parts. The first part is the files of Wapenhans as the chair of the Task Force. These files were inherited by Rajagopalan as he worked on the implementation of the report during 1993. The second are the files of Rajagopalan, both a file regarding the work of the Task Force that he had maintained while he was the Vice President, Sector and Operations Policy, and files that he created during the follow-up period.
This series is the central source for information on the work of the Task Force. It includes the record of the discussion of the Executive Directors at the time the Task Force was formed and the background documents for the meeting of the Executive Directors after the report was issued, the minutes of the meetings of the Task Force from March through June and the audio tapes and the transcripts of a 2 day meeting with partner organizations (cofinancers), and feeder studies on topics ranging from the Bank's internal culture to the use of information technology.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Records are arranged in two parts: the files of Willi Wapenhans and the files of Visvanathan Rajagopalan. They are thereunder arranged chronologically by the earliest dated document in the file.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Records are subject to the World Bank Policy on Access to Information.
Conditions governing reproduction
Records are subject to the Copyright Policy of the World Bank Group.
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
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Notes area
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Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Internal World Bank Group Archives rules based on ISAD(G).
Disclosure status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
21 August 2006