From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Sun Apr 08 2007 - 09:04:03 EDT
POLITICS: Wolfowitz Accused of Nepotism at World Bank Emad Mekay WASHINGTON, Apr 5 (IPS) - A controversial raise for a World Bank employee who has been romantically involved with the Bank's President Paul Wolfowitz was not the work of the Bank's Ethics Committee, as originally alleged by Wolfowitz's office, according to the watchdog group that leaked the information. Members of the Ethics Committee of the Board, the relevant body that would have approved the raise, which has triggered allegations of nepotism at the Bank's highest levels, say that they knew nothing of the salary hike, according to the Washington-based Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection organisation. (...) Payroll data obtained from the World Bank and made public Thursday by GAP show that Riza, a communications officer in the Bank's Middle East Office, who is currently working in an external assignment at the U.S. State Department, received a 47,300 dollar, or 35.5 percent, raise to 180,000 dollars after Wolfowitz arrived. This raise was followed last year by another 13,590 dollar raise, or about 7.5 percent, to a total salary of 193,590 dollars. "If World Bank staff rules had been respected, she was not to receive percentage increases greater than 12 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively. Her current salary of 193,590 dollars is about seven thousand dollars more than what [U.S.] Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earns," GAP said in the statement Thursday. (...) http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37243 http://www.whistleblower.org/content/press_detail.cfm?press_id=867 (...) Shaha Riza, long-time companion of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz and fellow Bank staffer, did not receive Bank approval for outside employment as a consultant for a major U.S. defense contractor during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. (...) Riza was a "subject matter expert" for the Middle East during the Iraq War run-up at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a firm focused on defense capabilities and intelligence gathering. At that time, Paul Wolfowitz was the Deputy Secretary of Defense. Inside sources at the Bank have verified to GAP that Riza never applied for nor received permission to provide these consultant services to SAIC. This is a gross violation of World Bank staff rules, which require Bank employees to clear extracurricular professional activities with the Outside Interests Committee in order to prevent conflicts of interest. Such undisclosed parallel employment, GAP sources say, would never have been tolerated by the Bank and are grounds for dismissal. "Considering that Riza was reportedly romantically involved with Wolfowitz at the time, that the Iraq War was imminent, that SAIC was a defense contractor, and that the World Bank had active projects in Iraq, multiple conflicts of interest probably existed," said GAP International Program Director Bea Edwards. http://www.whistleblower.org/content/press_detail.cfm?press_id=875 FINANCE: Wolfowitz May Bring Bank Back to Iraq Emad Mekay WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (IPS) - World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz may appoint a new resident director for Iraq soon, a move that sources inside the Bank say could contradict the institution's policies on engagement in conflict-stricken areas and put his role in the 2003 U.S. invasion back into the limelight. The move by Wolfowitz, the former number two official at the Pentagon and a main architect of the U.S.-led war, likely means the Bank would release new loans to the occupied Arab nation, despite the deteriorating security situation and recent disclosures of massive corruption in reconstruction efforts. (...) Edwards of GAP also points to the lack of a functioning system in Iraq that could guarantee that the Bank loans or projects will be dealt with in a transparent manner. "In fact, the Bank is prohibited from operating in a conflict like this," said Edwards. "In the simplest financial terms, there is no functioning banking system, the government does not control its territory and it cannot guarantee loan repayment. Any emergency or social funding in Iraq should come from donors' grants, not loans." (END/2007) http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36690 CORRUPTION: Bank's Graft Crusade Exaggerated, Critics Say Emad Mekay WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (IPS) - Publicising a self-styled crusade against corruption, the World Bank says it is successfully stepping up its campaign against graft, probing more than 400 cases over the last two years alone and barring dozens of companies and individuals from future World Bank contracts. But critics doubt the scope of the claims. (...) GAP, for example, says the Bank exaggerates the effectiveness of the steps that it has taken to fight corruption. "For example, the firms debarred for corruption are typically small-scale," Edwards of GAP told IPS. "For the most part, they have been involved in petty fraud having to do with minor kickbacks." She said that GAP analysts are working with World Bank staff members who made credible, documented disclosures involving major corporations and corruption in Bank operations. "When these Bank whistleblowers made their disclosures to INT, they were (alternatively) harassed, demoted and dismissed and blacklisted. In short, silence. One of our clients said that where corruption and the World Bank are concerned, INT is 'part of the problem'," she added. The Bank insists it is doing the best it can, not only externally, but internally as well. (...) Among other measures, the Bank has also kick-started the "Voluntary Disclosure Programme", which encourages companies to admit wrongdoing in exchange for diluted or no penalties. Critics say that the VDP programme allows "confessors" confidentiality, in turn allowing the Bank to cover up its own negligence or complicity, which undermines the administration of justice in countries where it is a criminal offence to bribe a foreign official. "[The] Voluntary Disclosure Programme doesn't accomplish this goal and indicates to me that the Bank is still suffering from the same conflict of interest with the companies it awards contracts to," Adams said. "I don't have confidence that the INT is catching the big fish." (END/2007) http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36479
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Apr 30 2007 - 00:00:16 EDT