World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz will defend his handling of a promotion and pay increase for his girlfriend on Monday to a special panel, whose investigation will ultimately determine if he wins his fight to stay on as head of the development institution.
Wolfowitz and his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, will make a full presentation to the panel, made up of representatives of the bank’s board of member countries, at separate appearances where they will outline events that eventually saw Riza promoted with a salary increase, and moved to an outside job at the State Department.
The former number two Pentagon official and one of the main planners of the Iraq war, Wolfowitz has already apologised for the way he handled the promotion that has prompted calls by staff and some member countries for him to step down to save the credibility of the poverty-fighting institution.
Last week, Wolfowitz complained he was being treated ”shabbily and unfairly without regard to appropriate process” when the panel turned down a request by his lawyer, Robert Bennett, to represent his client’s case.
A gender specialist and former senior communications officer in the bank’s Middle East Department, Riza said in a letter to the board earlier this month she has been ”victimised” by the uproar over her promotion and a related transfer to the State Department, which she said was forced to take because of her relationship with Wolfowitz.
Sources close to the decision-making process who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters the panel would focus on whether Wolfowitz worsened potential conflict of interest issues when he ”pressured” a bank vice-president into giving Riza the promotion and pay raise.
Board consensus
Another board source said the issue would likely not be put to a vote of the bank’s 24-nation board. Instead, the source said the board would try to build a consensus on how to proceed.
Wolfowitz goes before the panel with the blessing of President George Bush, who nominated him for the World Bank job in early 2005.
Still, most European countries — who make up a power bloc of World Bank donors — have voiced concern over Wolfowitz’s continued leadership and said the bank’s reputation and credibility have to be protected.
It is unclear what steps the board might take because of the unprecedented nature of the issue. The board has never been faced with a decision over the bank president’s fate.
But international development group Oxfam said in an open letter published in the Guardian newspaper on Monday that the controversy had already damaged the bank, with staff making it clear they are unable to carry out their jobs.
”If the committee finds him guilty of breech of contract, ethics rules and bringing the bank into disrepute, he must of course step down immediately,” Oxfam executive director Jeremy Hobbs wrote, the first time a major global development group has spoken out on the issue.
”However, we believe that the World Bank’s ability to act as a leading development institution has already been so damaged that Wolfowitz’s continued presidency of the World Bank is untenable,” Hobbs added. — Reuters