Paul Wolfowitz said on Monday he would not resign in the "face of a plainly bogus charge of conflict of interest" against him over a promotion he directed for his girlfriend at the bank.
WASHINGTON: World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said on Monday he would not resign in the "face of a plainly bogus charge of conflict of interest" against him over a promotion he directed for his girlfriend at the bank.
In a statement to a special bank panel looking into whether the former deputy US defense secretary abused ethical and other rules by approving the promotion, Wolfowitz said he was a victim of a "smear campaign" to oust him.
Wolfowitz said the institution's ethics committee had access to all the details surrounding the arrangement involving bank employee Shaha Riza, "if they wanted it".
Wolfowitz told the panel that: "I acted transparently, sought and received guidance from the bank's ethics committee and conducted myself in good faith in accordance with that guidance."
The special bank panel is investigating Wolfowitz' handling of the 2005 promotion of bank employee Riza, who was scheduled to appear later in the day.
The controversy has prompted calls for the resignation of Wolfowitz, an architect of the Iraq war in his preceding job as the No. 2 official in the U.S. Defense Department. The bank's 24 member board is expected to make a decision in the case this week.
Wolfowitz lamented that the controversy over the pay package was part of an effort to oust him from the office, which he has held for nearly two years.
"The goal of this smear campaign, I believe, is to create a self fulfilling prophecy that I am an ineffective leader and must step down for that reason alone, even if the ethics charges are unwarranted," Wolfowitz said.
He vowed to fight for his job. "I will not resign in the face of a plainly bogus charge of conflict of interest," he said.
As part of his defense, Wolfowitz, among other things, cited a Feb. 28, 2006, letter which he characterised as showing that bank's ethics committee had looked at the arrangement.
The panel's chairman, Ad Melkert, said in the letter that an allegation relating to "a matter which had been previously considered by the committee did not contain new information warranting any further review."
The letter did not specifically mention Wolfowitz or Riza by name. However, Wolfowitz pointed to it as proof that ethics officials were aware of Riza's compensation package.
The bank's executive directors, however, have said the terms and conditions of the package had not been "commented on, reviewed or approved" by the ethics committee, Melkert or the bank's board.
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