Wolfowitz near agreement to resign From correspondents in Washington
May 17, 2007 04:47am
WORLD Bank president Paul Wolfowitz is near an agreement to resign, perhaps as early as today, in a face-saving compromise deal to resolve a favouritism scandal, it was reported overnight.
World Bank officials said the bank's executive directors are completing an "exit strategy" that will allow Wolfowitz to resign and "still save some face" over his efforts to seek a promotion and pay raise for his companion, a fellow bank employee, ABC News said.
The officials said the bank's board would accept Mr Wolfowitz's resignation but would also acknowledge that the World Bank's ethics committee bears "some responsibility" for giving him bad advice on how to handle the conflict-of-interest situation with his girlfriend.
"The decision is likely today," officials were quoted as saying, because Mr Wolfowitz had been scheduled to leave later today for a European trip.
The report could not be immediately confirmed with the World Bank or Mr Wolfowitz's lawyer.
World Bank directors were meeting overnight to discuss the fate of Mr Wolfowitz as White House support for the lender's embattled head appeared to weaken over a damaging favouritism row.
The US administration has so far resolutely backed Mr Wolfowitz despite persistent calls for him to resign during a month-long scandal over the pay-and-promotion package he approved for his companion.
But that support seemed to be crumbling with the White House saying overnight that every option was up for discussion.
"This has certainly been a bruising episode to the bank and what you have to do is to figure out a way forward to maintain the integrity of the institution, and therefore when you do it you discuss everything," spokesman Tony Snow said.
His comments were strengthened by State Department spokesman Tom Casey who warned that "the bank is bigger than any individuals, past, present or future".
Mr Snow dodged questions about whether White House backing for Mr Wolfowitz was wavering, adding the administration of President George W. Bush still supported him.
Overnight Mr Wolfowitz, 63, who has steered the 185-country bank for nearly two years, pleaded with directors to let him stay on in the post, in which he has made fighting corruption a priority.
"I have said I am not without fault in the matter," Mr Wolfowitz told the executive directors of the scandal surrounding his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, who ended up earning almost $US200,000 ($240,312) a year when she was transferred to the State Department.
"I implore each of you to be fair in making your decision, because your decision will not only affect my life, it will affect how this institution is viewed in the United States and the world," he said.
Yesterday, a German finance ministry official said that Mr Wolfowitz was still expected to attend a meeting of finance ministers of the Group of Eight industrialised nations on Sunday.
Mr Wolfowitz has not cancelled his scheduled presentation on a World Bank program to fight corruption and money laundering, said the official, who did not want to be identified.