Washington – Embattled World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz said Sunday he will continue to lead bank efforts to reduce global poverty, resisting calls to step down over his involvement in securing a huge pay increase for a close female friend.
“The bank has important work to do, and I will continue to do it,” he said at a news conference after a meeting of the steering committee for the bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The committee said in its closing communique that the Wolfowitz issue was “of great concern to us all” and called on the bank board looking into the matter to complete its work.
“We have to ensure that the bank can effectively carry out its mandate and maintain its credibility and reputation as well as the motivation of its staff,” the committee said.
In answering questions from reporters about whether he should resign, Wolfowitz referred several times to the committee’s communique and said he did not want any comments he made to get in the way of the board’s work.
“I believe in the mission of this organization; I intend to carry it out; I have had many expressions of support,” he said.
After the news conference, Alison Cave, head of the World Bank Staff Association, which represents 7,000 of the bank’s Washington employees, said the group believes Wolfowitz should resign.
“We do not see how he can possibly regain the trust of the staff,” she said.
Wolfowitz has been under fire since it emerged that he secured a $193,590 job for his companion, Shaha Riza, at the State Department soon after he joined the World Bank in 2005.
A deputy defense secretary and one of the architects of President Bush’s Iraq war strategy, Wolfowitz has been working behind the scenes at weekend meetings of finance ministers and central bankers to drum up support to stay in his post and presented reports to the bank’s policy-setting Development Committee on Sunday.
The White House has said Bush has confidence in Wolfowitz.
The United States, Britain and France, whose governments have a major role in bank operations, said it was important to await the outcome of the board investigation into Wolfowitz’s actions.
