The controversy over big pay increases for Shaha Riza, thanks to her boyfriend Paul Wolfowitz while they both worked at the World Bank, may not be the only time that Wolfowitz has played a part in her career. The New York Times reports that Riza appears to have been hired for freelance work in Iraq in 2003 in the wake of the US invasion, at the behest of the Pentagon - when Wolfowitz was second in charge as deputy defence secretary.
According to the Government Accountability Project - the watchdog that originally discovered the extent of Riza's pay increases after Wolfowitz's arrival as World Bank president - the freelance trip to work for the Pentagon contractor was against World Bank rules.
The Times reported: "The contractor, Science Applications International Corporation, or SAIC, said that it had been directed to hire Ms Riza by the office of the under secretary for policy. The head of that office at the time was Douglas Feith, who reported to Mr. Wolfowitz."
Riza's trip is said to have raised concerns among some bank officials, who said they did not know under whose auspices she had traveled to Iraq at a time when it was against bank policy for officials to go there.
In the International Herald Tribune, Victoria Toensing, a lawyer representing Riza, said Riza went to Iraq as a volunteer and took a leave of absence from the World Bank, paying for her own benefits while she was on leave. Yet, on her return, she briefed senior members of the bank.
Her boss at that time, Jean-Louis Sarbib, said some of the bank's directors were "very concerned about why she was briefing the board, under which authority and with whom she had gone there." "I did not know anything about this at the time, and I was the vice president, and she was reporting to me," he said.
Details of Riza's trip working for Scientific Applications International Corporation had previously been detailed in March's issue of Vanity Fair.
