Besieged World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is negotiating an
agreement with the bank board to resign, World Bank sources said on
Wednesday.
The sources said Wolfowitz, former US deputy defense secretary,
insisted that he will resign voluntarily and the bank should share
some responsibility for his pay-and-promotion package for Shaha
Riza.
Shaha Riza, Wolfowitz's girlfriend and once a staff member in
the bank, was removed to work in the US State Department when
Wolfowitz took over at the World Bank in 2005, to avoid any
conflict of interest.
While still on the World Bank payroll, Riza was rapidly promoted
and ended up with a package of tax-free salary to about 193,000
dollars, even more than Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
receives before tax.
Pressure on Wolfowitz to resign has grown since a panel report
released on Monday concluded Wolfowitz has placed himself in a
conflict of interest situation over the Riza's assignment and pay
package.
"He should have withdrawn from any decision-making in the
matter," said the report, adding the informal advice provided by
the World Bank ethics committee was not a model of clarity.
The panel recommended the bank's 24-member board to "consider
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."
However, Wolfowitz responded immediately on Monday that the
report was unfair and unwarranted.
"It is highly unfair and unwarranted to now find that I engaged
in a conflict of interest because I relied on the advice of the
ethics committee as best I understood it," he said.
"I respectfully submit, to criticize my actions or to find the
mas a basis for a loss of confidence would be grossly unfair and
would be contrary to the evidence we have presented to you,"
Wolfowitz also said in a statement to the board on Tuesday.
"Rather than fix blame for something that wasn't wrong, we
should all acknowledge our responsibility as I have acknowledged
mine," he added.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration, which had voiced unwavering
support for Wolfowitz until now, also made in a major shift under
pressure to signal it would consider a change in leadership at the
World Bank.
The US is willing to consider "all options," including
Wolfowitz's resignation, as part of "a resolution of the question
of what is best for the future of the institution," said US
officials on Tuesday.
"This has certainly been a bruising episode for the bank, and
what you have to do is figure out a way forward to maintain the
integrity of the institution," said White House press secretary
Tony Snow Wednesday, hinting Wolfowitz will resign voluntarily.
US media said the White House overture could provide Wolfowitz
with a face-saving way to bow out of the institution, allowing him
to avoid being formally dismissed by the bank's board, said the
report.
Down the road, it could also ensure the White House retains its
influence in picking a successor, since the US would be seen as
opening the door for Wolfowitz's departure.
Though prominent officials from Europe to Latin America have
publicly called on Wolfowitz to resign, a decisive vote would break
sharply with the bank's consensus-minded culture, while presenting
difficult questions over the procedure of appointing its
president.
Never in the six decades of the World Bank's existence has the
board removed the institution's leader, who, by tradition, is
selected by the president of the United States, the bank's largest
shareholder.
(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2007)
