Rice comes to Wolfowitz's aid over world bank controversy
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice quietly has come to the aid of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, whose job is in jeopardy for his handling of a promotion and pay package for his girlfriend.
Rice, in telephone calls to foreign ministers in Europe and elsewhere, has put in a good word for him.
"This is something, just over the course of the past couple of weeks, in a couple of her conversations, in the course of her ongoing conversations with some of her counterparts, she mentioned her personal high regard for Paul Wolfowitz and the work that he’s doing at the World Bank," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
"She further underlined that she fully understood that there was a World Bank administrative process that is under way and that that process would follow according to the rules, regulations and procedures of the World Bank," he added.
A State Department official said the calls were not made for the sole purpose of defending Wolfowitz.
The overtures have come as the World Bank’s 24-member board heads toward a decision on Wolfowitz’s fate.
A report by a special bank panel accuses Wolfowitz of circumventing conflict-of-interest rules when he arranged for the 2005 promotion and compensation package for bank employee Shaha Riza.
The bank’s board could decide next week what action should be taken; a range of disciplinary options has been discussed.
The board could fire Wolfowitz, ask him to resign, signal that it lacks confidence in his leadership or reprimand him. Wolfowitz was offered an opportunity to personally address the board on Tuesday.
The White House has expressed support for Wolfowitz. Europeans, led by Germany and France, want Wolfowitz to go, but they do not want to get in a pitched battle with the US, the bank’s largest shareholder.
By tradition, the bank is run by an American. The Bush administration wants to keep it that way.
Some critics have said the controversy involving Wolfowitz raises questions about the need to honour this decades-long agreement under which the Europeans get to name the head of the International Monetary Fund, the bank’s sister organisation.
Critics call the process anachronistic and say it should be open to all and merit-based.
Wolfowitz, the former No. 2 official at the Pentagon and an architect of the Iraq war before taking the development bank’s helm in June 2005, has maintained that he acted in good faith in arranging the pay package.
Riza worked for the bank before Wolfowitz took over and was moved to the State Department to avoid a conflict of interest. But she stayed on the bank’s payroll. Her salary rose from close to 133,000 (£65,000) to 193,590 (£96,000), after pay raises. She has defended her pay as being within the range of similarly situated employees.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and three other top Democrats have urged President George
Bush to 'take decisive action quickly to bring this crisis to a close'.
Critics say the fracas has tarnished the bank’s reputation and could hinder its ability to raise billions of dollars from countries around the world to bankroll financial help for poor nations.
