Wolfowitz clings to job as board set to probe pay hikes

EMBATTLED World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz clung to his job yesterday after a stormy week of revelations on a pay scandal involving his girlfriend that is to be examined soon by the organisation’s board of directors.

The board, set to meet this week to consider the implications of the hefty pay hikes given to Wolfowitz’s partner from World Bank coffers, is facing increasing pressure on the scandal.

The New York Times yesterday called for the ousting of Wolfowitz, arguing he had “fallen far short of his own standards” of good governance.

“What might Mr Wolfowitz himself say if he discovered that a government receiving World Bank loans was making similar sweet arrangements for the personal friends of its president?” the paper asked in an editorial. “There is no way Mr Wolfowitz can recover his credibility and continue to be effective at the bank.”

Wolfowitz told reporters after the bank’s spring meeting in Washington that he has important work to do and added: “I intend to continue with it.”

The 185-member bank’s ministerial policymakers remained split on his fate.

Finance and aid ministers from the United States, Europe and other members expressed “great concern” in a statement after the bank’s spring meeting.

The ministers said they would await the findings of a review by the World Bank’s executive board into the conduct of Wolfowitz, who directed that his Libyan-born partner, Shaha Riza, get a bank pay deal worth nearly $200,000.