UNITED NATIONS — With Washington critics increasingly directing their attacks at the management style of the World Bank’s president, Paul Wolfowitz, a key figure in the battle over his post is the target of similar accusations.

A former chairman of the World Bank’s ethics committee, Ad Melkert, advised Mr. Wolfowitz on employing his girlfriend, who was serving as a top bank official when Mr. Wolfowitz became president. His advice, confirmed by documents released by the bank, has become a key component in the struggle over leadership of the World Bank, which has involved accusations that Mr. Wolfowitz’s management style has created a lot of enemies at the bank.

Coming to the U.N. Development Program from his post as the World Bank’s ethics adviser, Mr. Melkert found an organization that does not even have such management tools as an ethics committee. Over a year later, one has not been created. According to a spokesman, David Morrison, the agency is currently awaiting a report about creating an ethics “function.”

A former Dutch politician, Mr. Melkert’s title is associate administrator, but he is universally considered the de facto top man at the agency that disperses $5 billion annually worldwide. Like the UNDP administrator, Kemal Dervis of Turkey, and his predecessor, Mark Malloch Brown of Britain, Mr. Melkert belongs to a class of officials who migrate between international organizations. According to internal UNDP ombudsman reports that, although not meant for publication, were seen by The New York Sun, management ills that have plagued the UNDP were not improved much under Mr. Melkert. “As in the past four periods, the abuse of authority heads the list,” the 2006 report concluded.

Mr. Melkert takes the ombudsman’s annual reports “very seriously, and while there is need for improvement, there is some improvement under Mr. Melkert,” a spokesman, David Morrison, said yesterday.

As the World Bank’s top ethics authority, Mr. Melkert advised Mr. Wolfowitz in the summer of 2005 to take charge of all issues related to the employment of Mr. Wolfowitz’s girlfriend, Shaha Riza, and, according to an official letter, to direct the bank’s vice president for human resources to “act upon your instruction.”

This advice came even after Mr. Wolfowitz asked to recuse himself from dealing with Ms. Riza. Mr. Melkert, who was abroad yesterday, was unavailable for an interview, according to Mr. Morrison. He was unable to explain yesterday what ethical guidelines informed Mr. Melkert when he advised Mr. Wolfowitz to personally take charge of Ms. Riza’s reassignment despite apparent conflict of interest issues.

Mr. Wolfowitz acted on the advice, and transferred Ms. Riza outside his realm at the World Bank, negotiating a substantial annual salary raise, to $193,590 from $132,660.

When the raise was reported as scandal last week, first by the Financial Times, Mr. Melkert attempted to disassociate himself from the affair. Mr. Melkert and members of the ethics committee “were not aware of, nor did they approve, the details of the agreement,” Mr. Morrison told the FT last Saturday.

In 2001, when Mr. Melkert ran for prime minister as head of the Labor Party, the Dutch press considered him a political hack who lacked charisma. This week, it prominently reported on his role, quoting the FT and the contradicting documents released by the bank.

On Wednesday, Mr. Melkert issued a written response, saying his role was “to advise — not instruct — Mr. Wolfowitz.” He also argued that he never got involved in the final “terms and conditions” of Ms. Riza’s reassignment.

The pattern reminded one U.N. diplomat of Mr. Melkert’s role in a recent scandal involving $3,500 in counterfeit money that has been illegally held in a safe in the UNDP office in North Korea for 12 years.

After repeated written denials to American officials, Mr. Melkert admitted that the UNDP possessed the counterfeit bills, adding through Mr. Morrison that top officials knew about it only since February. Later, however, the Sun quoted internal documents reporting about the contents of the Pyongyang safe that were several years old.