Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Tick Tock

The end days for Paul Wolfowitz, the embattled President of the World Bank, are now in sight.

A panel of seven directors investigating the Wolfowitz scandal, stopped short of saying he acted in bad faith. However, they have given him until May 9 (today) to respond. The group also faulted the bank's ethics committee for giving him insufficient guidance on how to avoid a conflict of interest.

The findings will next be considered by the bank's full board, which may meet this week.

Support for Wolfowitz has all but disappeared in Europe, and is fading fast in Washington. President Bush will have to engineer a face saving exit for his former deputy defence secretary.

Germany's director at the World Bank has been instructed by his government to co-ordinate a board campaign against Wolfowitz.

Wolfowitz, for the moment, has vowed to stay.

President Bush, having publicly supported Wolfowitz, has now backtracked by allowing White House spokesman Tony Snow to say that Bush "has confidence" in Wolfowitz.

Wolfowitz is finished, the longer he stays the more damage he does to the credibility of the World Bank.

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