World Bank chief vows to stay on after partner pay row
Embattled World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz said he will continue to lead bank efforts to reduce global poverty, resisting calls to step down over his involvement in securing a huge pay increase for his partner.
“The bank has important work to do and I will continue to do it,” he said at a news conference winding up a meeting of the steering committee for the bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Wolfowitz has been under fire since it emerged that he secured a $193,590 (€143,000) for Shaha Riza at the State Department soon after he joined the World Bank in 2005.
The committee said in its closing communiqué the Wolfowitz issue was “of great concern to us all” and called on the bank board looking into the matter to complete its work.
“We have to ensure that the bank can effectively carry out its mandate and maintain its credibility and reputation as well as the motivation of its staff,” the committee said.
In answering questions from reporters about whether he should resign, Wolfowitz referred several times to the committee’s communiqué and said he did not want any comments he made to get in the way of the board’s work.
“I believe in the mission of this organisation, I intend to carry it out, I have had many expressions of support,” he said.
Several times when asked how he could continue as head of the 185-nation lending organisation leading the fight against corruption after acknowledging a direct role in the pay increase, Wolfowitz referred to the communiqué.
After the news conference, Alison Cave, head of the World Bank Staff Association, which represents 7,000 of the bank’s Washington employees, said the group believes Wolfowitz should resign.
“We do not see how he can possibly regain the trust of the staff,” she said.
A deputy defence secretary and one of the architects of Bush’s Iraq war strategy, Wolfowitz has been working behind the scenes at weekend meetings of finance ministers and central bankers to drum up support to stay in his post and presented reports to the bank’s policy-setting Development Committee.
The White House has said President Bush has confidence in Wolfowitz.
The US, Britain and France, whose governments have a major role in bank operations, said it was important to await the outcome of the board investigation into Wolfowitz’s actions.
British development minister Hilary Benn said on Saturday, however, that “this whole business has damaged the bank and should not have happened” and was distracting attention away from the bank’s agenda.
“This weekend ought to be about the bank’s contribution to fighting poverty and I’m looking forward to discussing how we can increase aid, tackle climate change and get clean water to one billion human beings,” said Benn.
