World Bank’s President Refuses To Step Down

WASHINGTON — The embattled World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, said yesterday that he would continue to lead bank efforts to reduce global poverty, resisting calls to step down over his involvement in securing a huge pay increase for a close female friend.“The bank has important work to do and I will continue to do it,” he said at a news conference winding up a meeting of the steering committee for the bank and the International Monetary Fund.The committee said in its closing communiqué the Mr. Wolfowitz issue was “of great concern to us all” and called on the bank board looking into the matter to complete its work.“We have to ensure that the bank can effectively carry out its mandate and maintain its credibility and reputation as well as the motivation of its staff,” the committee said.In answering questions from reporters about whether he should resign, Mr. Wolfowitz referred several times to the committee’s communiqué and said he did not want any comments he made to get in the way of the board’s work.“I believe in the mission of this organization, I intend to carry it out, I have had many expressions of support,” he said.Several times he was asked how he could continue as head of the 185-nation lending organization leading the fight against corruption after acknowledging a direct role in the pay increase, Mr. Wolfowitz referred to the communiqué.Mr. Wolfowitz appeared alongside Development Committee Chairman Agustin Carstens, Mexico’s finance minister, and Rodrigo de Rato, the head of the IMF, the bank’s sister institution.Opening remarks focused on the World Bank’s efforts to help poor countries meet goals for reducing poverty, broadening access to health care and education and economic development.Mr. Carstens and Mr. Wolfowitz talked about the need for wealthy governments to deliver on promises for increasing spending on development aid.“The donors are now unfortunately in a position of not fulfilling their promises,” Mr. Wolfowitz said.Large donor countries are meeting throughout this year to decide how much funding they will provide to a fund that provides interest free loans and grants to poor countries, the International Development Association.Last week Mr. Wolfowitz told reporters donors would need to provide at least $28 billion if they are to fulfill promises to compensate IDA for income lost because of debt relief granted to poor countries.Earlier, Mr. Wolfowitz said misleading information has been circulating over his involvement in the pay increase.In an e-mail to bank staff Saturday night, some of whom have called for his resignation, Mr. Wolfowitz said he had remained largely silent as the bank’s board of directors considered his future.“I feel, however, that this has left a vacuum, which has largely been filled by misleading information” and conceded the 109 pages of documents about the controversy released by the board are “a lot to wade through for significant facts so I would like to call your attention to a number of them.”He attached excerpts that referred to his offer, when he became president of the bank two years ago, to refrain from dealings with his companion, Shaha Riza, who then worked in the bank’s Middle East department. But the Washington Post said he did not include his lawyer’s subsequent clarification that the recusal offer did not include a ban on “professional contact.”Mr. Wolfowitz included a link to the package of documents, as did a posting on the bank’s Web site Saturday. He has been under fire since it emerged that he secured a $193,590 job for Riza at the State Department soon after he joined the World Bank in 2005.A deputy defense secretary and one of the architects of Bush’s Iraq war strategy, Mr. Wolfowitz has been working behind the scenes at weekend meetings of finance ministers and central bankers to drum up support to stay in his post and presented reports to the bank’s policy-setting Development Committee yesterday.The White House has said President Bush has confidence in Mr. Wolfowitz.Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said America welcomed and supported an updated version of the bank’s anti-corruption strategy developed under Mr. Wolfowitz’s leadership. Since taking over, Mr. Wolfowitz has made anti-corruption efforts a priority, prompting concern from some of the board’s European members that he was overemphasizing the issue.Mr. Paulson called Mr. Wolfowitz “a very dedicated public servant” and said the review process by the board should be allowed to proceed.As Mr. Wolfowitz entered the meeting room, he received a pat on the back from Mr. de Rato, the head of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank’s sister institution. Mr. Wolfowitz put his briefing papers down and, smiling, greeted members of the committee, headed by Mexico’s Agustin Carstens.America, Britain, and France, whose governments have a major role in bank operations, said it was important to await the outcome of the board investigation into Mr. Wolfowitz’s actions.

World Bank’s President Refuses To Step Down

World Bank’s President Refuses To Step Down

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