World Bank Report Says Wolfowitz Violated Rules

When Paul Wolfowitz left the Pentagon to be World Bank President, one had hoped that the man would finally be unable to screw up the world any further. After all, heading with World Bank offers one far less scope for committing war crimes than being an enabler of Field Marshal Donald von Rumsfeld and President George “LBJ” Bush. Be that as it may, an official investigation into pay increases for his romantic partner determined that he broke the rules. His position has pitted Europe against America, and it has completely undermined any credibility the Bank has in cutting corruption in the developing world. On the upside, this doesn’t rise to the level of the Nuremberg crimes he committed while at the Pentagon.

The whole problem arose because Mr. Wolfowitz as president would be in position to influence the future career path of his partner Shaha Riza who worked at the World Bank. Rather than recuse himself from the whole mess (or even find a different job!), he arranged her pay package on her secondment to the State Department. She wound up making more than her boss, Condoleezza Rice.

Yesterday, the board met to consider what to do about Mr. Wolfowitz. The report leaves little for the board to discuss, “The Ad Hoc group concludes that in actuality, Mr. Wolfowitz from the outset 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 have applied to the staff he was selected to head. The Ad Hoc Group finds this posture troubling for what it says about the leadership the bank could expect from the man who had been selected to head a global institution with the central mission of fighting poverty . . . The Group finds the submission notable for absence of any acceptance by Mr. Wolfowitz himself of responsibility or blame for the events that transpired.” Yeah, well, he still doesn’t accept any blame for the dead in Iraq-Nam either.

Mr. Wolfowitz has rejected the report out of hand, saying, “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.” However, the committee stated, “To conclude that the Ethics Committee was instructing Mr. Wolfowitz to become directly involved in the details of the conflict of interest matter and that that was the sole reason why he got involved would require one... to conclude that the Ethics Committee, the General Counsel and Mr. Wolfowitz ignored the requirement set forth by the Code of Conduct to withdraw from attendance or participation in deliberations or decision-making connected with that matter. It is simply not reasonable to believe that such a scenario was possible.” That’s diplomat-speak for “bullshit.”

There is only one way forward for the World Bank, no matter what the White House may say about their man. Mr. Wolfowitz has to go. He can’t do the job with the baggage he has collected. If he won’t resign, he must be fired. At least in this case,nobody died.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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