Support is crumbling for World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, 63, a former U.S. deputy defense secretary who is under fire for his role in arranging a promotion and hefty raise for his companion.
Germany’s director at the World Bank has been ordered to rally opinion against Wolfowitz, as the board weighs action in the scandal, according to Bloomberg News, and U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said obtaining Congressional funding for the bank is harder with Wolfowitz at the helm.
The World Bank leader has vowed to keep his job, saying he was following ethics committee advice when he gave World Bank communications officer Shaha Riza, 52, a 36-percent raise. And the bank’s 24-member board today gave him until Friday to respond to the allegations against him, Bloomberg News said.
But Michael Mussa, a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington and a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund told Bloomberg: “The way he can make the strongest contribution to the bank is by resigning. When you get to that stage, it doesn’t matter how you got to that situation.”
