Wolfowitz To Defend Himself on Pay Raise

NEW YORK, April 26 -- Embattled World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz learned Thursday that he will be allowed to argue for his job in front of a bank committee investigating him for engineering a generous pay raise for his girlfriend, a fellow employee at the institution.

The crisis surrounding his tenure continued to deepen as members of a team drafting a strategy to root out corruption in bank lending, an initiative pressed aggressively by Wolfowitz, sent a letter to the bank board on Thursday complaining that the scandal was jeopardizing their work.
   

World Bank chief Paul D. Wolfowitz.
World Bank chief Paul D. Wolfowitz. (Alex Wong - Getty Images)
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"We are deeply concerned by the impact of the current leadership crisis on the Bank's credibility," said the letter, which was signed by 46 members of the team of professional staff from around the world who are drafting the bank's Governance and Anticorruption Strategy. "The credibility of our front line staff is eroding in the face of legitimate questions from our clients about the Bank's ability to 'practice what it preaches.' "

Though the letter did not advocate Wolfowitz's ouster, it called for "clear and decisive actions to resolve this crisis quickly."

Wolfowitz's handling of the pay raise for his longtime companion, Shaha Riza, is being investigated by a committee of members of the bank's governing board. In a letter sent Thursday to Robert S. Bennett, the prominent Washington attorney Wolfowitz has retained, the committee called the bank president to appear on Monday morning. The committee agreed that Bennett could also attend -- a move heatedly debated inside the bank -- although he will not be allowed to speak on his client's behalf.

"We are pleased that our request has been granted to continue this matter until next week, and that counsel can attend," said Bennett, whose high-profile roles include representing President Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. "We look forward to the opportunity to show that Mr. Wolfowitz acted in completely good faith and sought recusal in the matter, with the recusal request denied by the ethics committee."

But even as the committee prepared to allow Wolfowitz to make his case, a senior bank official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, suggested that members of the committee had already decided to recommend Wolfowitz's ouster, casting Monday's appearance as a last-ditch appeal before the panel pronounces judgment.

Committee members were circulating a draft of the document they planned to release next week outlining Wolfowitz's ethical breaches and formally recommending his expulsion, the official said.

Such a move would substantially weaken Wolfowitz's hand, though it would not end his tenure. Rather, it would leave his fate to the full, 24-member board of governors.