The board of the World Bank has met to decide the fate of the organisation’s president, Paul Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz has confronted demand for his resignation over the promotion and pay of an ex-colleague with whom he is allegedly romantically involved. And now the forces of the World Bank status quo are now making their power play, demanding that the bank’s board ask him to resign over an ethics flutter involving his girlfriend. However, he has apologized for his involvement in the negotiations and said he will accept any decision taken by the board. Wolfowitz’s partner, Shaha Riza, was moved to the state department when he took the World Bank’s top job in 2005.
At the onset of the semi-annual finance ministers meeting at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has discarded criticism of his leadership. Speaking to press, Wolfowitz accepted that his nearly two-year leadership of the Bank is under close examination. He made an apology for endorsing a salary increase for a former female employee. 
The woman had received a large pay raise when she left the bank and was then assigned to the US State Department. Her pay tax-free World Bank salary was raised to around $193,000, more than the $186,000 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice receives before tax, have sparked off antagonism among other Bank employees.
Wolfowitz, who was nominated by President Bush, joined the bank after serving as deputy defense secretary at the Pentagon, where he was one of the chief architects of the U.S. war strategy in Iraq. Because of his close links with the Bush administration, he has been unpopular with many Bank employees. In the meantime, the pay raise for the former employee, Shaha Ali Reza, has triggered new controversy, and the Bank’s employees association is now asking for resignation of Wolfowitz.
Staff association representative Alison Cave in remarks presented during a staff meeting on the matter said, ‘The president must acknowledge that his conduct has compromised the integrity and effectiveness of the World Bank Group’. The latest events infused a new repulsiveness into what had already been a resentful division between Wolfowitz and many of the bank’s employees, who have repeatedly questioned his appropriateness for the post. Bank employees have also challenged his policies at the bank, particularly those cracking down on corruption in which he halted assistance to several countries without consulting the board.
On the other hand, the White House, which nominated Wolfowitz for the job in 2005, repeated its support for him. White House spokesman Tony Fratto told Reuters, ‘In dealing with this issue he has taken full responsibility and is working with the executive board to resolve it’.
