John Donnelly, The Boston Globe, May 18, 2007
WASHINGTON — Paul D. Wolfowitz yesterday resigned as president of the World Bank over his role in arranging generous pay raises for his girlfriend, ending a prolonged, extraordinarily charged battle that some officials say has badly damaged the poverty-fighting organization. He will step down June 30.
The departure of Wolfowitz, who insisted throughout a six-week battle that he had done nothing wrong, came after the Bush administration dropped its efforts to try to keep him in the job and began trying to negotiate a deal for his departure. Senior US officials said they worried that the drawn-out affair was beginning to raise questions about the bank’s future effectiveness.
Wolfowitz will be able to collect a $400,000 performance bonus due him on June 1, according to two senior bank officials. US officials asked him to stay on as a caretaker until the end of June to allow time for the naming of a successor.
In the end, the 24-member bank board, in a statement that all but exonerated Wolfowitz, said, “He assured us that he acted ethically and in good faith in what he believed were the best interests of the institution, and we accept that. We also accept that others involved acted ethically and in good faith.”
While finding no ethical lapses, the board did conclude that “a number of mistakes were made by a number of individuals.”