According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), a special World Bank panel has found that Paul Wolfowitz breached ethics rules when he secured a generous compensation package for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza.
At issue is Mr. Wolfowitz's personal relationship with Ms. Riza. To avoid any conflict of interest, Mr. Wolfowitz initially proposed to recuse himself from personnel matters regarding her. The board's Ethics Committee rejected that proposal in favor of an arrangement under which Ms. Riza was detailed to work at the State Department. As part of the bureaucratic give-and-take over the transfer, Mr. Wolfowitz dictated the terms of her compensation, including pay increases and promotions.
Mr. Wolfowitz has said he acted in good faith, after the board's Ethics Committee had asked him to deal with Ms. Riza's job situation. Critics say Mr. Wolfowitz should have left the final details of the transfer to others.
In other words, the Ethics Committee required Wolfowitz to arrange her transfer and her pay raise, then complained after the fact that the raise she got was too big.
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