Senior staff members at the World Bank broke into open revolt against their embattled president Paul Wolfowitz, when he was told to resign to his face at a meeting designed to clear the air.
According to the Financial Times, one of Wolfowitz's deputies said he should step down for the good of the bank. The revolt came as the bank's board planned to meet today to discuss Wolfowitz's fate, after the controversy involving his intervention to give large pay rises to his girlriend, a bank employee.
Meanwhile, even his normally reliable allies are now making calls for Wolfowitz to quit. The Washington Times, a staunchly conservative Republican daily newspaper, ran an editorial saying: "President Paul Wolfowitz of the World Bank should apologize once more (since multiple apologies are the norm) for succumbing to the petty temptation of favoritism, and step down. His work to arrange a State Department job with unreasonable promotions and raises for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, an employee of the World Bank when Mr. Wolfowitz took over in 2005, are clearly unethical. Such impropriety is particularly unacceptable in an organization that strives to reduce poverty and promote development through good governance."
Meanwhile, further details emerged on the hiring of his girlfriend as a freelance consultant for a trip to Iraq. The contractor claimed her hiring was ordered by the Pentagon, where Wolfowitz was deputy secretary of defence at the time.
