World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz’s hold on his job appeared ever more tenuous today after an internal probe found he had violated bank rules in arranging a sweet pay deal for his companion, News.com reports.
Nearly a month after the accusations surfaced and rocked the 185 country development lender, a World Bank ethics panel set up to investigate the matter has unequivocally found Mr Wolfowitz breached bank rules, a European source said.
“The committee concluded clearly that Mr Wolfowitz did not respect the rules,” the source said.
The panel completed its work late last week and gave its findings to Mr Wolfowitz overnight, the European source said.
“He has until today to respond,” the source said.
The two documents would then be transmitted to the board of directors.
Mr Wolfowitz, 63, is accused of improperly orchestrating a promotion and a pay raise for his companion, Shaha Riza, a fellow bank employee, after taking the helm of the multilateral bank in June 2005 promising to clean up corruption in borrower nations.
Bank rules prohibit managers from supervising employees with whom they have such a relationship.
