Wolfowitz, who has announced he will step down on June 30, told the BBC that he was pleased the bank’s board accepted he had acted ethically, and in good faith in his handling of a generous compensation package for his girlfriend and bank employee Shaha Riza in 2005. „I accept the fact that by the time we got around to that, emotions here were so overheated that I don’t think I could have accomplished what I wanted to accomplish for the people I really care about,” he said.
Wolfowitz’s role at the bank had been controversial from the start. By tradition, the United States – the bank’s biggest financial contributor – names an American to run the institution. US President George W. Bush’s selection of Wolfowitz in 2005 stunned many overseas, especially Europeans who were upset that the president would tap his No 2 official at the Pentagon and a key architect of the Iraq War to run the bank. In the BBC interview, Wolfowitz denied suggestions his decision to leave was influenced by an apparent lack of support from the bank’s employees.
„I think it tells us more about the media than about the bank and I’ll leave it at that,” he said. „People were reacting to a whole string of inaccurate statements and by the time we got to anything approximating accuracy the passions were around the bend.” Wolfowitz said reducing poverty in Africa was the most important challenge facing the bank in the next five years. He said the continent had been left behind in what had been spectacular development success in other regions, such as east Asia or India. (english.people.com.cn)
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