Beleagured Wolfowitz

One of the first things that Paul Wolfowitz did upon entering into his new job as President of the World Bank was to cut a lucrative deal for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza. Riza was working at the World Bank when he arrived so, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, he arranged that she work at the State Department and be paid a substantial raise; $200,000 over five years.

But regardless of what the WB's staff think regarding Wolfowitz's fate, it is the shareholders who will ultimately decide his fate. For the moment, the finance and development ministers at the spring meetings are mostly keeping quiet: "We must not behave like a kangaroo court,'' said Trevor Manuel, South Africa's respected finance minister.

Apparently, Wolfowitz had more latitude than he deserved because he promptly abused it through very generous compensations to Riza, reportedly for suffering this disruption to her career;

Ms Riza's promotion would normally have increased her salary to $153,000 at most, according to staff rules. Instead, she was paid $180,000. Her annual raises thereafter should have tracked the staff average, which was 3.7% this year. But Ms Riza was guaranteed raises of 7-8%, as would befit an employee earning an "outstanding" performance rating every year. By 2010, she could have been taking home almost $260,000. Totted up over five years, the deal Mr Wolfowitz wrote for her was worth at least $200,000 more than the deal the ethics committee appeared to have in mind.

And that is not all. Bank staffers, acutely conscious of rank and status, were outraged to discover that Ms Riza was all but guaranteed a second promotion, to the rank of director or senior adviser, on her return when Mr Wolfowitz's term ends in 2010. If he serves for a second term, she would come back in 2015 at the level of a vice-president, the pinnacle of the staff hierarchy. Both positions are rare and heavily contested. But Ms Riza would only have to pass a review by peers whom she herself would have a hand in choosing.

Cited story.

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