WASHINGTON, 19 May 2007 — World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz resigned Thursday less than halfway through his five-year term amid a furor over securing a pay raise for his companion.
Wolfowitz resigned after the White House bowed to pressure for his ouster from European governments, which said he had hobbled the world’s largest development agency.
The European Commission called yesterday for quick appointment of a successor to Wolfowitz, saying the bank needs “stable and strong political leadership.”
The White House said it would soon name a new candidate to run the bank, but Bush’s selection must be approved by the World Bank’s board.
Among those mentioned as a possible replacement for Wolfowitz were former Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who was Bush’s former trade chief; Robert Kimmitt, the No. 2 at the Treasury Department; Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson; former Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa; Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Stanley Fischer, who once worked at the International Monetary Fund and is now with the Bank of Israel. At news of his departure, staff members at the bank’s headquarters celebrated with people embracing one another and singing songs.
Whether he will stay on until June 30 remains questionable. “He will be treated like a leper,” one official told reporters. “No one, certainly not heads of agencies, are going to want to meet with him. He instantly becomes irrelevant to the bank from this point on.”
Wolfowitz also is now barred from making personnel and policy decisions, easing fears of some that he might fire those who stood up against him.
His departure ends a two-year run at the development bank that was marked by controversy from the start, given his previous role as a major architect of the Iraq war when he served as the No. 2 official at the Pentagon.
It also ends a political headache for President George W. Bush, who had named Wolfowitz to the post. Bush’s selection of Wolfowitz in 2005 for the post had stunned Europeans and some other countries. Europeans were upset that Bush would tap someone so closely associated with the Iraq war. After the pay controversy erupted a month ago, Europeans led the charge for Wolfowitz to resign. Beyond the furor over the compensation he arranged in 2005 for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, a bank employee, the negative stories about Wolfowitz now flowing from the bank cite his travel perks, perceived self-promotion, his distance from the staff and his unilateral decision-making.
