By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
Published: April 27, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 26 — Paul D. Wolfowitz’s struggle to hold on to his job as World Bank president suffered a major setback on Thursday when more than 40 members of the organization’s anticorruption team, formed to promote transparent government and closely identified with Mr. Wolfowitz, declared that the controversy over his conduct was undermining their work.
Without directly calling for his resignation or removal, the team said that Mr. Wolfowitz and the bank’s board needed to take “clear and decisive actions to resolve this crisis,” which it said was undermining the bank’s “credibility and authority to engage” on the corruption issue.
“The credibility of our front-line staff is eroding in the face of legitimate questions from our clients about the bank’s ability to practice what it preaches on governance,” the statement said. “In these circumstances, we cannot credibly implement the GAC strategy,” using the acronym for governance and anticorruption.
The group’s statement was seen as especially grave because Mr. Wolfowitz has made ending government corruption his signature issue as World Bank president since 2005. Some of the statement’s signers had sided with Mr. Wolfowitz over the past year against efforts by others to water down the antigraft program.
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