Official Statements of Shahe Riza and Paul Wolfowitz

Monday Shaha Riza and Paul Wolfowitz made their clearest most detailed and powerful statements to the World Bank. I was fortunate enough to be able to obtain in pdf format copies of their statements to share with American Thinker readers. Any errors in grammar or in transcription from the originals are my fault alone.

I come before you today with my counsel, Victoria Toensing, at your request to assist you and the World Bank in resolving a problem that is not of my making. Let me summarize quickly what I consider to be the key facts of this difficult and painful situation, which has grown out of all proportion to the merits of the circumstance, and has now done harm to the Bank as well as to me.

Melkert (Chairman of the Board’s Ethics Committee) was on Dutch national television yesterday, stating that Wolfowitz lied about the details of the relocation of ms. Riza being according to what the Ethics Committee advised.

So the discussion is about the exact details of the relocation of ms. Riza; how Wolfowitz filled out the details, and if these were breaching the advice of the Ethics Committee.

Melkert’s official statement (in English):
http://www.elsevier.nl/nieuws/economie/artikel/asp/artnr/150455/index.html

Another link of interest:
http://www.innercitypress.com/undpworldbank043007.html

[quote]
While the irregular promotion and raise to Ms. Riza is rightfully being scrutinized, UN sources continue to express surprise that Mr. Melkert’s hiring of Eelco Keij, an operative from his political party, the Dutch Labor Party, has not triggered any formal review by UNDP or its Executive Board. And beyond direct personal conflicts of interest, these UN insiders enumerate Mr. Melkert’s incongruous talk but no action on issues of ethics at UNDP since he has essentially run the agency.
[/quote]

Since the chief antagonist of Paul Wolfowitz on the matter of the settlement is Ad Melkert then head of the World Bank’s Ethics Committee readers might be interested in knowing what he is up to now:

[quote]UN sources continue to express surprise that Mr. Melkert’s hiring of Eelco Keij, an operative from his political party, the Dutch Labor Party, has not triggered any formal review by UNDP or its Executive Board. And beyond direct personal conflicts of interest, these UN insiders enumerate Mr. Melkert’s incongruous talk but no action on issues of ethics at UNDP since he has essentially run the agency.
After taking the Number Two post at UNDP in early 2006, few ethics reforms have been enacted. Following criticism that blossomed from an inquiry into the irregular demotion of UNDP’s head of human resources, Brian Gleeson, on November 29, 2006, Mr. Melkert attended a press conference in UN Headquarters on December 15 at which he said he would strive to make UNDP more transparent and more ethical — “you ain’t seen nothing yet,” he later said.
Four months later, we ain’t seen nothing yet. Neither Ad Melkert nor Kemal Dervis have filed the Financial Disclosure forms which Ban Ki-moon and other top UN officials have filed, and which Mr. Ban has made public. At UNDP, there is still no Ethics Office. The simple reform of making UNDP internal audits available at least to members states which ask for them has not been enacted. In fact, Mr. Melkert did not even make the proposal to the UNDP Executive Board meetings in January 2007. [/quote]
And according to the article, he is unlikely to make the proposal to the June meeting either.

http://www.innercitypress.com/undpworldbank043007.html

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