The Wolfowitz Standard
May 18, 2007
The New York Sun
Original Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/54731
News out of the World Bank suggests it's none too soon to start thinking about what might be called The Wolfowitz Standard. If top management of the international organizations are going to be held to the standard Mr. Wolfowitz was held to, who else should come under the microscope? Here is The New York Sun's quick list. We don't allege any wrongdoing. But if one is looking for offices in which to start applying the Wolfowitz Standard, here are some recent cases:
Mark Malloch Brown and George Soros. The United Nations Development Program cooperated, during the years that Mr. Malloch Brown headed it, on projects with Mr. Soros's philanthropies. At the UNDP Mr. Soros and his aides were allowed influence and access. In some countries, the two agencies operated as one unit. Mr. Malloch Brown describes their relations as a friendship. While at the UNDP, Mr. Malloch Brown fetched up as a tenant in a house adjacent to Mr. Soros's mansion in Katonah, N.Y. Mr. Malloch Brown insists he paid Mr. Soros a market-rate rent. In our opinion that's worth an investigation. Mr. Molloch Brown was recently named vice chairman of Mr. Soros's Quantum Fund
Shengman Zhang. Mr. Zhang was the World Bank's managing director until 2005. His wife worked directly under him at the Bank. He recently argued that his case was different than Mr. Wolfowitz's because there was no bank rule against married spouses working together, but there was a rule against sexual relations between bank employees. Shaha Riza was employed by the bank for seven years prior to Mr. Wolfowitz assuming the presidency. Their relationship began long before he became president.
Nicolas Stern. Mr. Stern was chief economist and senior vice president at the World Bank between 2000 and 2003. When Mr. Stern, a Briton, was named to the job by James Wolfensohn, then president of the Bank, several staffers complained about violations of Bank rules against nepotism, because Mr. Stern's brother, Richard, at the time served as the Bank's vice-president for human resources. Nicolas was hired and the complaints were never addressed, according to Bank sources.·
Ban Hyu-Yee and husband Siddharth Chatterjee. Both the daughter and son-in-law of Secretary-General Ban work for the U.N. Childrens Fund in Nairobi. UNICEF does not directly report to the secretary-general, but Ms. Riza did not report to Mr. Wolfowitz either. Would a promotion for Mr. Chatterjee within the United Nations system involve the signature of his father in law? What arrangements have been or should be made? As in the Riza-Wolfowitz's case, the young Ms. Ban and her husband have worked for UNICEF long before her father came to the U.N.
Kofi Annan. In one of the most written-about controversies in the United Nations, a company called Cotecna, which employed Kojo Annan, the young son of the sitting secretary-general, Kofi Annan, was hired by the United Nations to inspect goods in Iraq without an acknowledgment of conflict of interest. Unlike in the current case, where Mr. Wolfowitz never hid his relation and has stuck with several arguments to explain the situation, the Annans have changed their stories several times as further reporting found original arguments untrue.
It may be that there are extenuating circumstances in some or all of the cases cited above. We weren't worried about Mr. Wolfowitz's relations with Ms. Riza, but more important than any specific case is the principle that there be a standard that applies across the board. Now that Mr. Wolfowitz has decided to resign from the World Bank at the end of June, let it be just the start of a global cleanup in the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions that spend so much time preaching to the rest of the world on the dime of the American taxpayer.