Posted on 04/21/2007 10:07:47 PM PDT by the Real fifi
Unfortunately, that thumbnail sketch [of Ms.Riza's cxompensation package]omits some highly relevant facts. It was Mr. Wolfowitz who, before taking over at the bank, called the potential conflict of interest to the attention of the bank's ethics committee. He asked to be recused from any personnel decisions involving Ms. Riza. The committee agreed that a conflict existed, but it said that could probably be solved only by Ms. Riza leaving the bank, either permanently or on loan to another agency. The committee also told Mr. Wolfowitz that, if she chose to go elsewhere, Ms. Riza should be given a raise because she already had been short-listed for a promotion. So when Mr. Wolfowitz dictated her new terms of employment he was responding in part to the committee's instructions. Further raises were intended to be equal to what she might have earned had she stayed at the bank, responding to the committee's advice that she receive "compensation to offset negative career impact" from her reassignment.
Was the package nonetheless too generous, even by cushy World Bank standards? The executive directors should answer that question. But there's a relevant fact here, too. The ethics panel reviewed the situation again a half-year later, in February 2006, after receiving an anonymous complaint from a bank employee precisely on the issue of excessive pay. Once again it found, "on the basis of a careful review," that the allegations "do not appear to pose ethical issues appropriate for further consideration by the Committee."
What has changed in the intervening 14 months? That would be another question that we hope the review will answer. It's encouraging that the executive directors called for a review of bank procedures and standards, which will presumably range beyond the actions of the president.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The facts don’t matter. It’s the STORY that matters. And the gravity of the charges.
Maybe one of the editors lurks here at FR. :-)
So is Wolfowitz off the hook? :-)
The WaPo is STILL not reporting all the facts, particularly about why Wofo was told he had to sign off.
I think so. If the Bank doesn’t take steps against those who leaked the misleading memo I will be furious. Cleveland and Kellem, the aides he brought in will probably be reined in. The head of the staff union may be in some trouble—she should be. And the ethics committee might be under some scrutiny and up for some criticism.
Xould you elaborate?
"The paper trail shows that Mr. Wolfowitz had asked to recuse himself from matters related to his girlfriend, a longtime World Bank employee, before he signed his own employment contract…"…the bank's ethicists also proposed that she be compensated for this blow to her career.
"…ethics committee chairman Ad Melkert formally advised Mr. Wolfowitz in a memo that "the potential disruption of the staff member's career prospect will be recognized by an in situ promotion on the basis of her qualifying record . . ."
"In the same memo, Mr. Melkert recommends "that the President, with the General Counsel, communicates this advice" to the vice president for human resources "so as to implement" it immediately.
"And in an August 8 letter, Mr. Melkert advised that the president get this done pronto: "The EC [ethics committee] cannot interact directly with staff member situations, hence Xavier [Coll, the human resources vice president] should act upon your instruction." Only then did Mr. Wolfowitz instruct Mr. Coll on the details of Ms. Riza's new job and pay raise."
Yes, Thanks. I had thought it was something new to which you referred. Amazing, isn’t it, that the WSJ using the same documents Fox made public two Fridays ago, and the WSJ correctly reported on last Sunday finally gets around to the truth?
Unfortunately, what will be amazing is if a backdoor slime job doesn’t work this time in Washington.
thanks for your reply..
Well, more on coming and so we have to be on guard and ready to fight back.
Sure is a lot of knocking people out of places going on at the moment. And the media seem like they’re just waiting for the info to get to them so they can drive the train way down the tracks with obsessive coverage and hit pieces.
Yes. And this will continue because the Dems want to win back the WH and the media wants to help them regardless of the anguish they cause these people and their families.
Nobody - NOBODY - at the World Bank or IMF or any of those agencies is worth $198,000 salary.
They are all a bunch of jet-setting parasites using your money to enjoy the good life and reward their friends.
Shut them all down. No country has been improved by the World Bank - just the elites and the bureaucrats and the despots running them.
There’s a good argument that can be made that the IMF and WB have outlived the need for them , nevertheless, the point is Wolfowitz was deliberately and brutally smeared and it has taken the WaPost a long time to correct the record.
“Nobody - NOBODY - at the World Bank or IMF or any of those agencies is worth $198,000 salary.”
No one in government service should be paid that much. That is why it is called “government service”
It’s not as if we can attract the best grads at present salaries for really important poisitons. In the early 60’s when I came to DC to work for the govt lawyers in the honors program received almost as much compensation as lawyers in the public secter. Today first year law grads working at big firms make more than US District Court judges. Not many people can afford that sacrifice.
Come on, Fifi. Can’t you tell the difference between news and an editorial? This is an editorial. Or are you one of those people who CAN’T TELL the difference between fact and opinion and merely says any opinion you agree with is indistinguishable from absolute truth? Why did you classify this professional leader editorial as ‘news’?
I said in my initial post it was an editorial. Nevertheless, even in an opinion piece, the writer ought to give an accurate recitation of the facts and this the WaPo FINALLY did.
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