News This Issue:

• Alan Abroad
• Albanian Arrested
• Turkmen Turpitude
• Gretta Duisenberg In Trouble Again
• Scotch Euros
• Blejer Opts For Calm
• Russian Recriminations
• Too Much Parliamentary Scrutiny?
• Norges Bank Does Well
• Iceland's Governor Goes

Alan Abroad
With Alan Greenspan's crossing of the Atlantic to receive his knighthood from the Queen of England, Newsmakers could scarcely resist the temptation to pay the great man a visit - perhaps in the hope of achieving some kind of vicarious communion with the unmatched mind of the all-powerful, the all-wise, the all-merciful. While he was in the country, he last week dropped in on the new Treasury building in Whitehall which he was to open - just minutes away from Central Banking Publications' HQ, which for some unaccountable reason he missed.

It was a bitter disappointment. On entering the stately edifice that houses Her Majesty's Treasury, Newsmakers spied a shiny Jaguar rolling up to the entrance and the venerable Eddie George nimbly hopping out, come to provide moral support to his buddy Al, who was actually looking rather frail. I was then directed to a room where I could observe the proceedings from a video screen, metres away from the room where Big Al was appearing in person (which someone later told me was not actually full - 52 finance ministers and a handful of prime ministers from Commonwealth countries, and the president of the World Bank among others were insufficient to fill all the chairs).

The UK Chancellor Gordon Brown gave a desperately sycophantic speech introducing the generalissimo. True, a degree of deference is to be expected, but to hear Brown describe Greenspan as "our foremost ally, a great American, America's greatest central banker, not just of our generation but of all time" was enough to make an Englishman squirm. Foremost ally? What happened to Gordon's designs on Europe? Greatest central banker? Is Paul Volcker totally forgotten? After all, St Paul was the slayer of the inflation dragon. St Alan just has to make sure it does not revive - an altogether easier task. And now he is "on trial" in the media for bubble trouble.

Alan's own speech describing the importance of the UK as a financial centre and the Treasury's involvement in this was neutral. But he did not neglect to do his own bit of back scratching, referring to the Bank of England's "nearly mythical presence".

Newsmakers was unable to attend the ceremony of investiture, which was held in the library of Balmoral Castle, deep in the Scottish hinterland. By all accounts it was a splendid occasion, and one that Alan said, "I shall always cherish". Inquiries to the Palace whether this was followed by a round of Scottish country dancing, as favoured by the Royals, and how Alan fared with his rendering of the Gay Gordon, have gone unanswered.

Newsmakers' advice to Sir Alan - chuck it in now. Throw in the towel. Let your record speak for itself. The longer you stay, the more tarnished it will get.

Albanian Arrested
An incident at the Bank of Albania has resulted in the arrest of the deputy governor, Dhame Pite. He is currently locked up in a prison cell where he stands a chance of remaining for some years. Pite is on trial after being detained last Monday on charges of "performing actions contrary to his duty and in violation of the equality of subjects in tender", according to the prosecution. The bank has verified the facts for me, candidly admitting, "this is a shame for our institution", and it looks unlikely that the bank will defend him in court.

Pite was busted for favouritism and allegedly accepting a backhander for awarding a tender in 2000 for the reprinting of the 1996 series of Albanian banknotes (originally printed by British De la Rue) to French banknote printers Francois Charles Oberthur. The tender represented a $583,000 increase from the previous price, and its acceptance was particularly "irregular" since De la Rue was offering less. Intriguingly, Oberthur's offer started off lower than De la Rue's, but by the time the contract was signed, the figure had mysteriously shot up - justified by greater "security" measures... Unfortunately for Pite, this did not go unnoticed, and constituted enough of a national economic loss to get the Albanian Investigation Authorities on his tail. They then called for the prosecution office to take action, which in turn put their case to the Tirana District Court - an irrevocable cycle of justice and retribution set in motion, the consequences of which look unlikely to be favourable for Mr Pite.

Turkmen Turpitude
Oh, shame! Not five months into the job and caught red-handed. The president of Turkmenistan has once again cast out the chairman of the central bank for dabbling in affairs that do not, apparently, fit with the job description - although his predecessor was ditched for much the same thing. Imamdurdy Gandymow was given the boot "for abuse of office and in connection with criminal proceedings against him". Sounds like a fair cop, only it transpires that Gandymow's said criminal charges were filed by his very own employees at the central bank. But he had only been there since May - how could they have got onto him so quickly?

It is alleged that hefty quantities of cash were surreptitiously siphoned off to foreign bank accounts by one of the bank staff, Arslan Kakayew. The president said: "He has transferred, and with help from senior persons, about $42m from central bank accounts to accounts in foreign banks. In other words, he has simply stolen it." Needless to say, this Kakayew is nowhere to be found, and Gandymow has had to shoulder the blame. His successor is Shakersoltan Muhammedowa, previously head of the People's Bank. Good luck.

Blejer Opts For Calm
Mario Blejer, who for a brief but tempestuous spell headed the central bank of Argentina, has now landed a much mellower job as director at the Bank of England's Centre for Central Banking Studies. After unrelenting harrying from all sides in Buenos Aires, Blejer will certainly relish the sedate and secure surroundings on the seventh floor of the Bank of England's head office on Threadneedle Street. Before braving it at the central bank in Argentina, Blejer had done twenty long years at the IMF in Washington, and perhaps pined for a livelier environment - but he soon ended up with perhaps a little more than he had bargained for.

He revealed his dilemma in an interview in the Central Banking journal: "I wasn't very keen to take this position but they told me that we have to fix the problem. You can help to 'tend the wounded', I was told." But it was a thankless job, and after just six months he was fed up: "I felt under siege. Because of all sorts of threats, I could not move around freely. Life was uncomfortable." And what could be more comfortable than a nice stress-free job with ample peace and quiet to devote to study and research? Eddie George was delighted: "He brings with him a wealth of technical monetary expertise from his years at the IMF as well as front line experience from his role in Argentina at a very challenging time."

Russian Recriminations
There seems to have been a small amount of controversy over the nomination of one of the seven board members of the Central Bank of Russia whose positions have now been confirmed. Six of them were reappointed although one, Konstantin Korishchenko, was a new nomination for the post of deputy board chairman. However it turns out that deputy chairman Viktor Melnikov's nomination was not especially well received by the Duma banking and budget committees, which had recommended that he be ditched from the board.

Luckily for him, the Duma's presidential representative Aleksandr Kotenkov stuck up for him by repeating President Putin's opinion of him as "a top specialist in his field". Another stuck his neck out by alleging that all international organisations know Melnikov as "a top-notch professional". He doesn't sound that bad, so why all the fuss? Sadly, there was a certain reluctance in voicing opinions openly on this matter, perhaps once the president's own views had been expressed, and the original committee vote was done by secret ballot. So much for parliamentary transparency - before clamouring about central-bank transparency, perhaps parliaments ought first to address their own shortcomings.