Paul Wolfowitz can’t be bothered by the democratic structures of the World Bank. Peerless due his extreme intelligence, it’s insulting to expect that his great work should be slowed down by the deliberative processes of mere mortals at the bank or elsewhere on the planet earth.
That was the message World Bank officials were delivered by two political operatives appointed (with tenure) by Wolfowitz to keep the bank natives in line: “Robin Cleveland, who had been the associate director for National Security Programs at the White House Office of Management and Budget; and Kevin Kellems, who had been with Wolfowitz at the Pentagon,” writes John Cassidy in ‘The Next Crusade‘, his profile of Wolfowitz for The New Yorker:
“Their attitude was: We are brighter than other people, we know more than other people,” a bank veteran who recently left told me. “They were unaccountable because they had no direct-line authority. Officially, they were just advisers to the president, but in fact they were calling the shots.”
Cassidy continues:
More than half a dozen current and former bank staff members gave me critical assessments of Cleveland. “She is vindictive to the core,” one said. Cleveland, who often acts as a trouble-shooter for Wolfowitz, conceded that she can be demanding. “I am impatient, and I apologize for that, but it’s impatience in trying to get things done,” she said. “We are only here for a short time, and there are incredibly important things to do.” Kellems, a low-key Midwesterner, provoked less controversy at the bank, though some called him “the keeper of the comb”- a reference to the film “Fahrenheit 9/11,” in which Wolfowitz is shown preparing for a television appearance by spitting on his comb before applying it to his hair.
Since Wolfowitz’s arrival, about a dozen senior officials at the World Bank have quit, including the managing director, the general counsel, the chief financial officer, and six vice-presidents. Shengman Zhang, a Chinese national who was a managing director for almost ten years, left in December, 2005. “Shengman was bypassed, provoked, and humiliated by Wolfowitz’s aides,” one of his former colleagues told me. “They would say, ‘Don’t tell Shengman you are doing that; I’m telling you to do it.'” (Shengman, who now works for Citigroup, declined to speak with me.)
Documents released by the World Bank reveal that Wolfowitz did his own dirty work when he delivered the final directive on the seconding of Shaha Riza to the State Dept.
Wolfowitz Dictated Girlfriend’s Pay Deal
by Karen DeYoung and Krissah Williams, Washington Post, 14 April 2007 [ hat tip ]
Wolfowitz had also asked for the release of the documents, believing that they would show that the board’s ethics committee had rejected his offer to recuse himself from consideration of Riza’s employment and ordered him to find a solution.
But the documents also revealed that Wolfowitz’s description of events has been less than candid. In a May 25, 2005, letter to Wolfowitz’s personal lawyer negotiating his contract, Roberto Danino, then the bank’s general counsel, acknowledged that Wolfowitz had disclosed “a pre-existing relationship with a Bank staffer” and had proposed to resolve it “by recusing himself from all personnel matters and professional contact related to the staff member.”
Wolfowitz lawyer Robert Barnett responded two days later with an e-mail stating that the proposal “WOULD NOT — I REPEAT, NOT — INVOLVE RECUSAL FROM PROFESSIONAL CONTACT” with Riza. “THIS MATTER,” Barnett wrote, “MUST BE RESOLVED” before Wolfowitz would sign his contract.
The board eventually ruled that “professional contact” between the two violated bank policy and instructed Wolfowitz to order the personnel department to arrange her departure and compensation.
But the board insisted yesterday that it neither “commented on” nor “reviewed or approved” the agreement that Wolfowitz ordered his human resources department to make with her.
In a memo to the bank’s vice president for human resources dated Aug. 11, 2005, Wolfowitz wrote, “I now direct you to agree to a proposal which includes the following terms and conditions.” Riza was to be “detailed to an outside institution of her choosing while retaining Bank salary and benefits.” She was to receive an immediate raise with approximate annual increases of 8 percent.
The transfer was not of her choosing:
Wolfowitz’s friend says she’s the victim
By Jeanine Aversa, Associated Press, 13 April 2007
WASHINGTON – The woman at the heart of the controversy that has embroiled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz says she is a victim and was forced into a job transfer because of their relationship.
Shaha Riza’s comments are included in new documents released by the World Bank on Friday that also show Wolfowitz had a direct hand in arranging her promotion and generous pay package. Wolfowitz is fighting to retain his job.
Riza said that at no time did she report directly to Wolfowitz and that he had proposed to recuse himself from any decisions involving her to avoid a potential conflict of interest.
She said the ethics committee of the World Bank’s board had required her “to go on external assignment contrary to my wishes.”
Riza was moved to a high-paying job at the State Department in September 2005. “I have now been victimized for agreeing to an arrangement that I have objected to and that I did not believe from the outset was in my best interest,” she said.
Her comments were made in a memo to an ad hoc committee of the World Bank looking into the circumstances surrounding her transfer.
[…]
Before the job change, Riza was believed to be getting paid close to $133,000. After the transfer, she received $193,590, according to the Government Accountability Project, a watchdog group.
Riza remains on the World Bank’s payroll though she left the State Department job in 2006 and now works for Foundation for the Future, an international organization that gets some money from the department.
When asked what Riza does at the foundation, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey on Friday said his “best understanding” was that she is an adviser to the foundation’s board. “I do not have a job description for her, no,” he said.