Bank’s Report Says Wolfowitz Violated Ethics

A World Bank committee investigating the actions of Paul Wolfowitz has said that he violated ethical and governance rules as bank president by showing favouritism to his companion in 2005. The Bush regime have moved swiftly in an attempt to defend Wolfowitz but the language used by the report appears so harsh that it is hard not to think that the Europeans have lost all faith in Wolfowitz as leader of the World Bank Group.

The report charged that Mr. Wolfowitz broke bank rules and the ethical obligations in his contract, and that he tried to hide the salary and promotion package awarded to Shaha Ali Riza, his companion and a bank employee, from top legal and ethics officials in the months after he became bank president in 2005.

Citing what it said was the “central theme” of the matter, the report said Mr. Wolfowitz’s assertions that what he did was in response to the requests of others showed that “from the outset” of his tenure he “cast himself in opposition to the established rules of the institution.”

“He did not accept the bank’s policy on conflict of interest, so he sought to negotiate for himself a resolution different from that which would be applied to the staff he was selected to head,” the committee said, adding that this was “a manifestation of an attitude in which Mr. Wolfowitz saw himself as the outsider to whom the established rules and standards did not apply.”

“It evidences questionable judgment and a preoccupation with self-interest over institutional best interest,” it said.

The Committee have now passed the problem along to the larger governing body asking that they determine, “whether Mr. Wolfowitz will be able to provide the leadership needed to ensure that the bank continues to operate to the fullest extent possible in achieving its mandate.”

The Americans are arguing that Wolfowitz may deserve some form of censure but that the facts do not warrant his dismissal.

Indeed, the Bush White House have circled the wagons around Wolfowitz, just as they have around Gonzales.

Vice President Dick Cheney said in an interview with Fox News in Jordan before the committee’s findings were released that Mr. Wolfowitz was “one of the most able public servants I’ve ever known” and that “he’s a very good president of the World Bank, and I hope he will be able to continue.”

White House and Republican officials said that from the beginning, President Bush has seen the controversy over Mr. Wolfowitz as a proxy fight waged by liberals at the bank opposed to Mr. Bush’s policies, and that he would not toss him or Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales overboard just because opponents want them out.

Beyond pride and politics, administration officials said that having someone at the bank who is viewed as committed to combating corruption and waste in aid programs, and who commands the confidence of Republicans and conservatives, helps guarantee Congressional funding for the bank’s projects.

However, European governments are saying that they will not be able to fund the World Bank should Mr Wolfowitz stay.

The appointment of Wolfowitz to head the World Bank was as unwise as the appointment of Jon Bolton to the United Nations. It was the reward of an ideologue and a two finger salute to the rest of the world that seems to epitomise Bush's Frat style Presidency. He is an unserious person dealing with very serious organisations.

There are some who think that the damage Bush has wrought with this appointment may be permanent.

These clashes of perspective have ruptured the bank’s governance system so deeply that finance officials in many countries worry that it may be irreparable whatever happens to Mr. Wolfowitz. If he refuses to resign, many said he might find it hard to travel or issue directives. If he leaves, a fight over choosing his successor is sure to erupt.

Wolfowitz's whole modus operandi here appears typical of the neo-con mentality that normal rules do not apply to them.

Let us remember what he did to lead us to this impasse. Wolfowitz attempted to circumnavigate the World Bank's rules by having his girlfriend work under his supervision. When the Bank's ethics committee told him that this was impossible he transferred her to the State Department but gave her a salary increase that meant that she was earning more than Condaleezza Rice, and this increase was being paid for by the World Bank.

Wolfowitz has claimed that the bank's ethics officers were well aware of the arrangement that he had made and has implied that they approved of what he did.

The new evidence that surfaced Monday revolved around Mr. Wolfowitz’s charge that one of his accusers, Xavier Coll, the bank personnel director, was wrong in recalling that Mr. Wolfowitz tried to cover up the salary and promotion package for Ms. Riza.

Mr. Coll, according to the report issued Monday, said that he had told Mr. Wolfowitz that the pay package for her was “outside the staff rules” and that the bank president had told him not to inform two top ethics officers, Roberto Daniño, then the bank’s general counsel, and Ad Melkert, head of the board’s ethics committee.

Wolfowitz has argued that Coll is wrong and said that Coll stated to him that he thought the president was embarking on “a reasonable way to move forward.”

However, the bank committee have rejected Wolfowitz's version of events and have backed Mr Coll's recollections rather than Mr Wolfowitz's. The bank committee have also rejected Wolfowitz's claim that he did not attempt to keep what he was doing secret from the bank's ethics officers.

The conclusion of the report is an almost textbook description of the neo-con mindset:

The report concluded, “Mr. Wolfowitz has taken the position that there were no rules that applied to the situation and therefore no rules could have been broken in resolving the matters as he did.”

He will cling on for the moment, but it's impossible for anyone to argue that he can continue to effectively lead an organisation when the vast majority of the people that he supposedly "leads" are vehemently opposed to him continuing to do so.

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Tags: Wolfowitz, World Bank, Bush, neo-cons