WASHINGTON, May 15: A World Bank committee has found bank President Paul Wolfowitz guilty of violating ethics rules but the White House said on Tuesday that this did not justify calls for Mr Wolfowitz’s resignation.
Mr Wolfowitz also has rejected the critical report, saying the findings are no ground for his dismissal.
In a report released on Monday evening, a special bank panel concluded that Mr Wolfowtiz broke ethics rules in his handling of a promotion and generous pay raise for his girlfriend, Shaha Raza, and that his involvement represented a conflict of interest.
"The salary increase Ms Raza received at Mr Wolfowitz's direction was in excess of the range established by Rule 6.01," the panel said.
In documents released late Monday, Mr Wolfowitz called the findings "unbalanced and flawed" and argued that the panel had omitted statements and documents that support his position.
But the panel disagreed and referred a final decision to the bank's 24-nation board of shareholder governments, which met on Tuesday, but is unlikely to make a final decision before Wednesday.
At the White House, spokesman Tony Snow said he did not think Mr Wolfowitz had done anything to warrant his resignation.
Mr Snow said that President Bush continues to support Mr Wolfowitz who, as deputy defence secretary, was one of the architects of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
“What we've said is, yeah, he made mistakes,” Mr Snow said. "That pretty much is obvious. On the other hand, it's not a firing offence.”
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson also said they don't think the facts merit Mr Wolfowitz's dismissal.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson spoke to his counterparts in several other countries, telling them to support the bank president.
The Financial Times reported that the White House “is not taking no for an answer” to its efforts to save Mr Wolfowitz.
US media reports said that the Bush administration also tried to "prevent the distribution" of the Bank board committee report saying that Mr Wolfowitz violated ethics rules but the panel ignored the request.
