Paul Wolfowitz was on Thursday night battling to save his job as president of the World Bank after admitting he had blundered over the handling of a promotion and pay rise for his partner, Shaha Riza.
After a series of revelations about the way he arranged for Riza to be seconded to the State Department and receive pay rises totalling $61 000, Wolfowitz’s future was being discussed by the bank’s 24-strong board.
It was thought unlikely the board would take the unprecedented step of sacking the bank’s president, but Wolfowitz’s public apology was seen in Washington as an indication of the serious damage the row has caused to his reputation.
Under Wolfowitz, a leading architect of the Iraq war appointed to the World Bank two years ago, the bank has sought to make the fight against corruption the central plank of its work, and at a press conference to launch the spring meetings of the bank in Washington this weekend he was asked whether he now had enough credibility to continue such a campaign.
Wolfowitz pleaded for understanding for his ”painful personal dilemma” and sought to divert attention by focusing on the need to raise aid levels to the developing world. However, he faced repeated questions about his integrity. The controversy erupted last week when the bank’s staff association questioned the treatment of Riza.
The board has since been investigating Riza’s secondment, amid allegations that Wolfowitz personally directed the head of human resources to offer a generous pay rise and promotion. The bank’s staff association called for all the papers relating to the case to be made public.
Wolfowitz said he had acted after taking advice from the bank’s ethics committee, and made it clear that he was not planning to resign. ”I made a good faith effort to implement my understanding of that advice, and it was done in order to take responsibility for settling an issue that I believed had potential to harm the institution … In hindsight, I wish I had trusted my original instincts and kept myself out of the negotiations.”
Wolfowitz joined the bank in mid-2005 after serving as Deputy Defence Secretary at the Pentagon, but as one of the chief architects of the Bush administration’s war strategy in Iraq his appointment was controversial from the outset.
Britain’s Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, has been critical of Wolfowitz’s focus on corruption and last year threatened to withhold $50-million in United Kingdom funding. – Guardian Unlimited Â