Paul Wolfowitz made fighting corruption the centre-piece of his tenure at the World Bank. Building on James Wolfensohn's famous 1996 speech on the "cancer of corruption", he made a valiant attempt to tackle collusion and missing funds within World Bank projects. But by failing to look holistically at government financial management systems, he missed a chance. The challenge for his successor Robert Zoellick is to realise the World Bank dream, of a world free of poverty, by making better stewardship of the public purse the norm.

It is an extraordinary and little-discussed fact that in the modern age, the public company is far more accountable to its shareholders than most governments are to their citizens. The demise of WorldCom and Enron shows that auditing standards are fundamental to ensuring that executives are held accountable. This is based on audited financial statements, including a balance sheet of assets and liabilities, which a public companysubmits annually. While recent events have sparked a debate on corporate governance, the business world understands that following the money is the way to keep business honest.