Author Topic: The extremely juicy Wolfowitz debacle's being entirely ignored here..  (Read 617 times)

pumpster

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Wolfowitz skips meetings amid controversy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz canceled an appearance at a major health conference Thursday as the bank's board discussed an escalating controversy over the promotion of his girlfriend.

The 24-nation board is trying to determine how to proceed given the unprecedented nature of the situation, board sources said.

They said there appeared to be divisions among the board members, with the United States leading a bloc of countries, including some from Asia, who supported Wolfowitz in the face of calls for his resignation.

Some European countries have expressed concern that the scandal has damaged the bank's credibility and staff morale.

The beleaguered Wolfowitz kept a low profile, staying away from the health conference, sponsored by the bank's private-sector lending arm, and canceling a weekly meeting on Friday with his most senior management.

"I'm sorry on behalf of Paul Wolfowitz that he couldn't come," International Finance Corp chief Lars Thunell told private-sector delegates at the conference, but offered no explanation for the World Bank chief's absence.

Wolfowitz has made clear he has no intention of stepping down over the scandal in which he directed the promotion and pay increase for his companion, Shaha Riza, before she was moved outside the bank in 2005 because of their relationship.

Last week, Wolfowitz apologized for how he handled Riza's promotion, saying he was new at the bank and in "uncharted waters."

White House support
The White House Thursday restated its support for Wolfowitz, who had been nominated by President Bush to head the World Bank, in the face of the uproar.

White House spokesman Dana Perino said it was appropriate to allow the board to first finish its review of the matter "because they are an independent agency and we'll let that process take place."

The United States is the World Bank's biggest shareholder, holding 16.4 percent of total board votes, followed by ally Japan which has 7.9 percent. A major decision by the board requires an 85 percent majority, with the U.S. holding enough votes to block any major decision.

Senior Democratic congressmen and other critics have demanded Wolfowitz's resignation, saying his actions have undermined the campaign against corruption in the developing world that has been a hallmark of his tenure.

Meanwhile, U.S. defense officials cleared Wolfowitz in a 2005 investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general over the hiring of Riza to carry out a study related to Iraq while she worked at the bank.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Wolfowitz, a former No. 2 official at the Pentagon and key architect of the Iraq war, may have recommended Riza for the job, but she was also recommended by others and was uniquely qualified.




Wolfowitz Backed Friend for Iraq Contract in ’03
Published: April 20, 2007

WASHINGTON, April 19 — Paul D. Wolfowitz, while serving as deputy secretary of defense, personally recommended that his companion, Shaha Ali Riza, be awarded a contract for travel to Iraq in 2003 to advise on setting up a new government, says a previously undisclosed inquiry by the Pentagon’s inspector general.

The inquiry, as described by a senior Pentagon official, concluded that there was no wrongdoing in Mr. Wolfowitz’s role in the hiring of Ms. Riza by the Science Applications International Corporation, a Pentagon contractor, because Ms. Riza had the expertise required to advise on the role of women in Islamic countries.

The investigators also found that Mr. Wolfowitz, now president of the World Bank, had not exerted improper influence in Ms. Riza’s hiring. Earlier this week, Science Applications International said an unnamed Defense Department official had directed that she be hired. She had been a World Bank employee for five years at the time.

Mr. Wolfowitz’s office said it could not comment on the latest disclosure. Ms. Riza’s lawyer, Victoria Toensing, did not respond to a request for a comment.

The disclosure of Mr. Wolfowitz’s role in Ms. Riza’s contract in 2003 provides a new indication of his involvement in her employment, at a time when the World Bank’s board is investigating his role in arranging for a large salary increase, a promotion and a transfer for Ms. Riza when he came to the bank in 2005.

The disclosure also came on a day of swirling pressure at the bank, where the 24-member executive board met into the evening to discuss the situation amid mounting calls for Mr. Wolfowitz’s resignation.

Bank officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were divulging proceedings that were not supposed to be made public, reported that the rift between employees and the president had become a major distraction from their work, with some employees wearing blue ribbons in a display of defiance against his leadership.

“People feel paralyzed,” one official said. “No one is doing any work at all. This genie can never go back to the bottle.”

As the board met, officials said a separate review was being conducted by the vice presidents, who oversee specific countries, regions and subject matters, and who were polling their staffs. The overwhelming sentiment, officials said, was that Mr. Wolfowitz should step down.

In another sign of crumbling support, bank officials and others said that a consensus had emerged among European officials involved with the bank that Mr. Wolfowitz had lost his ability to lead the institution, not so much because of the issue of Ms. Riza but because of other policy disputes over the last two years.

The meeting of the board was called by the panel’s most senior member, Eckhardt Deutscher, of Germany. There was no sign of what the board would do, but Mr. Deutscher gave a speech on Thursday to a German foundation offering a strong though oblique criticism of Mr. Wolfowitz.

“The World Bank needs a strong leadership with compassion, integrity and vision,” Mr. Deutscher said in the speech, to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. “The governance structures need a fundamental reform. And lastly, the World Bank needs credibility, credibility, credibility.”

Bank officials said Mr. Deutscher, who has worked closely with Mr. Wolfowitz on developing the bank’s anticorruption policies, now favors having him step down, a consensus already reached by Britain, France, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries.

A senior European official involved in the bank said Mr. Deutscher was “leading the charge” for a change in leadership and trying to assert the board’s role, effectively wresting control from Mr. Wolfowitz.

“For the moment, the view among the Europeans is, ‘Let’s continue the discussions, and it is up to the dean to express what the concern is,’ ” this official said, speaking about Mr. Deutscher. “It is in everybody’s interest to avoid bringing this to a head.”

On the matter of the contract for Ms. Riza in 2003, the Pentagon inspector general’s office opened a review in March 2005, two years after the invasion of Iraq and one year after it began a sweeping investigation into contracting practices during the early chaotic months of the war.

The Pentagon official who disclosed details of the inquiry agreed to answer questions on the condition of anonymity because it involved the role of senior officials in recommending individuals.

The official said the relatively small contract came under scrutiny only when a Pentagon investigator noticed Ms. Riza’s name and recalled that she was romantically linked to Mr. Wolfowitz.

The investigator deemed the matter was worth opening an inquiry, because the type of contract called specifically for it to be assigned to Ms. Riza. But a more formal investigation was not instigated, he said, because “it was determined that Ms. Riza was uniquely qualified to fill the contract requirements.”

Investigators also determined that “the recommendation of individuals does not constitute any misuse of office,” the official said in describing the findings of the inspector general. “Nobody violated or misused their office.” Nevertheless, the inquiry found that Ms. Riza “was recommended by Wolfowitz as well as others, in verbal form,” the official said.

It was not clear how Mr. Wolfowitz’s verbal recommendation was relayed through the Pentagon hierarchy and nascent occupation authority and then to the contractor, which is known as SAIC.

Earlier this week, a spokeswoman for SAIC said the company was told to contract with Ms. Riza by an official in the office of the under secretary of defense for policy, then headed by Douglas J. Feith.

But on Thursday, Pentagon officials, clarifying the source of the contract, said it was managed through the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, then headed by Jay Garner, a retired Army three-star general. General Garner said in an interview that he did not remember Ms. Riza’s playing any role in advising the American-led occupation.

The World Bank board is also examining the contract to see if it complied with bank rules requiring employees to get permission for outside consulting work when it might conflict with their duties at the bank. At the time of the contract, it was against bank policy to have dealings with Iraq, on the ground that it was a country under foreign military occupation.


pumpster

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Re: The extremely juicy Wolfowitz debacle's being entirely ignored here..
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2007, 08:07:59 PM »
Top deputy tells Wolfowitz to step down

WASHINGTON - A deputy to Paul Wolfowitz urged the World Bank chief on Wednesday to resign in the interests of the institution during a meeting of the bank’s management, sources who participated in the meeting said.

The sources told Reuters that World Bank Managing Director Graeme Wheeler, a bank veteran named by Wolfowitz as one of his two deputies a year ago, raised the issue at a meeting of the bank’s vice presidents.

Asked to comment, World Bank spokesman Marwan Muasher said: ”I feel it is inappropriate to comment on private meetings.”

Wheeler, a former World Bank treasurer who joined the bank from the New Zealand treasury, is widely respected in the institution.

He was one of the first career staffers Wolfowitz brought into his management team after he took the helm of the bank in 2005 and came under fire for surrounding himself with people he brought with him from the Pentagon and White House.

Wheeler could not be reached for comment.

The World Bank is reeling from a controversy over leaked documents that show Wolfowitz played a role in dictating the terms of a high-paying promotion for his companion and bank employee Shaha Riza, before she was moved by the bank in 2005 to the State Department because of their relationship.

Wolfowitz has said he does not intend to resign and has apologized for his handling of the matter, even as World Bank member governments worry that the matter had damaged the credibility of the poverty-fighting institution and dented staff morale.

The White House on Wednesday repeated that President George W. Bush still had “full confidence” in Wolfowitz, a key Iraq war architect who left the Pentagon in 2005 to become World Bank president.

“We still have full confidence, the president has full confidence in President Wolfowitz,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters.

The bank’s 24-nation board is examining Wolfowitz’s role in helping to arrange the promotion for Riza, while the organization representing bank employees has called for his resignation.

“I think the effort of the World Bank board should be to get to the facts, treat it with fairness and think of the long-term effectiveness of the institution,” Fratto said.

ribonucleic

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Re: The extremely juicy Wolfowitz debacle's being entirely ignored here..
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2007, 08:18:34 PM »
I think we all know a vote of confidence from George Bush means...