Wolfowitz says sorry for helping partner's career

Wherever neo-cons go after they leave office, they never seem to cease believing that rules are things that are made for other people which don't apply to them.

Take the case of Paul Wolfowitz. Elevated by the Bush regime to head the World Bank - a very strange appointment for a man who had never previously expressed any interest in economic development and eliminating poverty from poorer country's - he , it now turns out, has used this position to enrich his girlfriend by giving her increases in salary that are so far in excess of what bank rules and protocol stipulate that there are now widespread calls for his resignation.

Wolfowitz, who as Deputy Secretary of Defense was considered an architect of the U.S. war with Iraq, disclosed to bank board members that he had a romantic relationship with a senior bank communications officer, Shaha Riza, shortly after he was nominated to head the World Bank. Bank regulations disallow bank employees from supervising spouses or romantic partners, but Wolfowitz reportedly attempted to circumvent the rules so he would be able to continue to work with Riza. Informed by the bank's ethics officers that that would not be allowable, the problem appeared solved when Riza was detailed to work at the State Department's public diplomacy office in September 2005--even though her salary was still to be paid by the World Bank.

Before she was detailed over to the State Department, Riza was earning $132,660, according to the bank's payroll records obtained by the Governmental Accountability Project. Had the bank's board adhered to its ordinary rules, as Riza was shifted over to the State Department, she should have only been eligible for a raise of about $20,000. Instead she was given a raise of $47,340, whereupon her salary became $180,000. Then last year, she received yet another raise which brought her salary to $193,950. That salary increase not only meant that Riza earned more than Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but apparently made her the single highest paid State Department official.

This has caused understandable outrage amongst the World Bank's staff, 90% of whom were opposed to Wolfowitz taking up his position, a position that he was always supremely unqualified for. The World Bank Group Staff Association have issued a statement and they have been remarkably blunt in stating what they think should happen next.

"The president must acknowledge that his conduct has compromised the integrity and effectiveness of the World Bank Group and has destroyed the staff's trust in his leadership. He must act honourably and resign."

The idea of any neo-con acting honourably and resigning is just too far removed from reality to produce anything other than the deepest mirth. Wolfowitz has issued a statement:

"With hindsight I wish I had trusted my original instincts and kept myself out of the negotiations," he said yesterday. "I made a mistake, for which I am sorry."

"I took the issue to the ethics committee and... the committee's advice was to promote and relocate Ms Riza," said Mr Wolfowitz. "I made a good-faith effort to implement my understanding of that advice. And it was done to take responsibility for settling an issue that I believe had potential to harm the institution."

Mr Wolfowitz said that after a meeting with the bank's board he had agreed to establish a panel to decide whether his behaviour was inappropriate. "I proposed to the board that they establish some mechanism to judge whether the agreement reached was a reasonable outcome," he said. "I will accept any remedies they propose."

"To implement my understanding of that advice". There's the sleaze-ball get out phrase right there.

And I love how, after meeting with the Bank's board, where they have obviously ordered an investigation into his role in this affair, Wolfowitz acknowledges that he will, "accept any remedies they propose."

He's actually agreeing that he will allow them to fire him if that if what they propose. That's the level of arrogance we are dealing with here. I've never heard of any person facing the sack thinking that they have the right to refuse to accept the decision.

As proof of his inadequacy to head the World Bank, we should remember that this is a man of such financial acumen that he believed the invasion of Iraq would be almost self financing:

“There’s a lot of money to pay for this that doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people…and on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years…We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.”

Only in the Bush White House would a man who showed that level of stupidity concerning financial affairs be put in charge of a Bank whose purpose is to encourage economic growth and eliminate poverty from some of the world's poorest country's. And only in the Bush White House would the legitimate concerns of others who have traditionally looked after the poor have been swept aside as things of no import.

His lack of compassion towards the poor had always made him seem as inappropriate a choice to head the World Bank as it was to send John Bolton to the UN. But surely none of us believed that he was a person of such extremely questionable moral fibre that he would have used such a position to enrich his girlfriend?

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UPDATE:

His apology appears to have gone worse than the report I read led me to believe.

In a chaotic day of revelations and meetings at a normally staid institution, Mr. Wolfowitz apologized for his role in the raise and transfer of Shaha Ali Riza, his companion, to a few hundred staff members assembled in the bank building atrium, only to be greeted by booing, catcalls and cries for his resignation.

Tags: Wolfowitz, World Bank, Shaha Riza, ethics committee, State Department