WASHINGTON – World Bank boss Paul Wolfowitz personally pushed for his girlfriend to get a cushy transfer to the State Department with a fat raise to nearly $200,000, a newly disclosed memo shows.
Five months after Wolfowitz took the reins at the bank in 2005, his gal pal Shaha Riza, 51, was moved from her senior post in communications at the bank to the State Department – though the World Bank continued to pay her boosted salary of $193,500, a raise of 35.5 percent.
The World Bank yesterday released an Aug. 11, 2005, memo showing that Wolfowitz himself directed the bank’s human-resources boss, Xavier Coll, to accept Riza’s request to be assigned outside the bank with a promotion and pay increase.
Wolfowitz, 63, then rubber-stamped Riza’s promotion and salary increase, winning approval from the bank’s ethics committee, board members said.
A board source told Reuters that if Wolfowitz “guided” Riza’s salary negotiation process, it would be a breach of the bank’s ethics code.
Riza said she is the victim in this case because her relationship with Wolfowitz forced her into a job outside the bank that she didn’t want, all to avoid the appearance of impropriety.