WASHINGTON (AFP) - The World Bank's top chief financial officer Bertrand Badre gave up a controversial US$94,000 bonus after a staff uproar over the issue, officials.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announced the change on Tuesday in a meeting with staff called urgently on the eve of the global crisis lender's annual meetings in Washington, spokesman David Theis confirmed to AFP.

Badre's bonus, granted despite Kim's budget-slashing austerity program at the bank, had sparked anger, and last week the World Bank Group Staff Association demanded Kim meet them to explain the issue.

Badre, from France, was hired in March 2013, one year into Kim's tenure as president, and was awarded a US$94,000 bonus for fiscal year 2014, in addition to his net annual salary of about US$380,000.

After President Barack Obama nominated him to lead the Bank, Kim launched a sweeping reorganization aimed at cutting the US$5 billion annual expenditures by US$400 million over three years, including possible staff cuts.