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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

US fails to win extra time in Wolfowitz crisis

Financial Times, May 15, 2007 -- The Group of Seven leading industrialised nations on Tuesday failed to agree a way to resolve the crisis at the World Bank, as European nations and Canada resisted US pressure to delay consideration of whether Paul Wolfowitz can be effective in his job as bank president.
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3 comments:

wolfowitzmustresign said...

US fails to win extra time in Wolfowitz crisis

By Krishna Guha and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington

May 15 2007

The Group of Seven leading industrialised nations on Tuesday failed to agree a way to resolve the crisis at the World Bank, as European nations and Canada resisted US pressure to delay consideration of whether Paul Wolfowitz can be effective in his job as bank president.

A conference call scheduled by the US Treasury broke up without agreement, with only Japan supporting US calls to separate discussion of ethics violations by Mr Wolfowitz from the broader question of whether he should remain in his post.

The call – at deputy finance minister level – came after the publication of a critical report by a panel charged with investigating Mr Wolfowitz’s handling of a secondment package for his girlfriend Shaha Riza.

The White House ramped up its efforts to save Mr Wolfowitz in an 11th-hour attempt to prevent the board from trying to force him to resign this week.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said: “What we have said is yes, he made mistakes. That pretty much is obvious. On the other hand, it is not a firing offence.”

Timeline:
Spring 2005

Paul Wolfowitz nominated for World Bank president

Mr Wolfowitz advises the bank’s ethics committee of his romantic involvement with Shaha Riza, a bank employee. The president offers to recuse himself from personnel decisions but not professional contact with Ms Riza. Committee rejects this solution.

Mr Wolfowitz directs the head of human resources to award generous pay and promotion package to Ms Riza.

Spring 2006

An angry member of staff sends an anonymous email to the board about the terms of Shaha Riza’s secondment package.

Spring 2007

The FT discloses that Mr Wolfowitz directed the terms of Ms Riza’s secondment.

White House tests the level of support for Mr Wolfowitz but meets European resistance.

A bank report finds Mr Wolfowitz broke its code of conduct.
A spokesperson for US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said Mr Paulson also did not think that the facts merited dismissal.

The US has held out the prospect of a future discussion on the effectiveness of Mr Wolfowitz’s presidency as an incentive to critics not to press for his removal now.

However, a senior European official said: “That strategy is obviously going nowhere.”

World Bank executives weighed in against any delay in an unprecedented letter to Mr Wolfowitz and the board signed by 37 of the World Bank’s 39 country directors.

They stopped short of explicitly calling for Mr Wolfowitz’s resignation, but demanded that the bank “practise what it preaches on governance and accountability”.

The country directors called on the board to “resolve the crisis quickly” and warned “failure to act credibly…risks both the reputation and the mission of the institution”.

The European Union on Tuesday called for a quick resolution to the crisis, with development ministers meeting in Brussels hinting heavily that Mr Wolfowitz should stand down.

”We need a rapid decision from the board,” Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul of Germany said after chairing a discussion of the situation.

“All of us development ministers want the integrity and the credibility of the Bank to be maintained and reinstated. We need a strong Bank, a strong president.”

However, there were divisions among the 27-strong bloc about whether at this point to threaten to withhold funds if the Bush protégé held on.

Ms Wieczorek-Zeul said the Bank would find it hard to raise finance for its soft lending programmes with Mr Wolfowitz at the helm.

But Bert Koenders of the Netherlands said it was too early to discuss such measures.

Meanwhile, according to two congressional aides, several Democratic senators are considering introducing a non-binding resolution that would call on the US representative on the bank’s board to “vote for the removal of any Bank official, including the president, who is determined by the board to have engaged in significant ethical violations”.

Anonymous said...

In addition:
"Yesterday the bank's executive board decided that its final decision on Mr Wolfowitz would be made without its 24 members consulting their home governments - a move that makes it harder for the US administration to apply pressure."
according to the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/
story/0,,2080241,00.html

Anonymous said...

Did you downloaded Wikileaks docs? Give me link plz
Thanks

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