Peru appoints World Bank's Shack as new comptroller

Peru's congress approved the appointment of economist and former World Bank consultant Nelson Shack as the country's new comptroller, ending months of uncertainty surrounding his controversial predecessor, Edgar Alarcón.

A congressional panel voted for Shack by 18 votes to one in a broadcast voting session.

Shack, who holds a master's degree in public policy from the Universidad de Chile, has worked at multilateral entities including the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) since 2005. He previously served as budget director at Peru's finance ministry from 2001-05 together with Fernando Zavala, now President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's finance minister and cabinet chief.

Shack replaces Edgar Alarcón, who was ousted for failing to file tax returns and for allegedly taping meetings with government officials, including President Kuczynski's former finance minister Alfredo Thorne. Leaked audio of a meeting with Alarcón forced Thorne to resign last month.

Alarcón irked Kuczynski by opposing major infrastructure projects such as the US$510mn Chinchero airport contract, which was subsequently rescinded.

Kuczynski, who marks a year in office next week, is struggling to unlock US$25bn in blocked infrastructure investment, including airports, ports, highways, railways, gas pipelines and water projects, in addition to mining and energy investments.