Wolfowitz resigns
Paul Wolfowitz resigned.
Mr Wolfowitz’s resignation ended a saga which convulsed the bank for weeks, opening a chasm between America and European members, after it emerged that he had engineered a $60,000 pay rise for his girlfriend in violation of bank rules.
The bitterness of the dispute was exacerbated by a fierce campaign by Mr Wolfowitz to shift some of the blame for that pay rise to other officials at the bank. In the end, he appears to have prevailed.
In its statement last night, the bank’s board said: “A number of mistakes were made by a number of individuals in handling the matter under consideration”, and that “the bank’s systems did not prove robust to the strain under which they were placed”.
In return, Mr Wolfowitz said he had concluded it would be in the best interests of the bank if he stood down.
“I am pleased that, after reviewing all the evidence, the executive directors of the World Bank group have accepted my assurance that I acted ethically and in good faith in what I believed were the best interests of the institution, including protecting the rights of a valued staff member,” he said.
The end to the crisis at the bank will come as a relief to US and European governments, as well as to the institution’s employees, who had bridled at the installation of Mr Wolfowitz, a man best known as the architect of the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq.
guardian
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