[wrefrinny]

It's a bad day for Africa...

[adactthrd]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
My favorite line: "President George W. Bush said he admires Wolfowitz, who the president said has the bank's best interests at heart." Paying an extra $60,000/year to a woman to make sure your World Bank president is sexually satisified is certainly a good deal for the bank. Ok, normally I'd look for any excuse to fire a non-economist NeoCon from the World Bank, especially one with the foreign policy record of Wolfowitz, but I can't see what he did wrong! His girlfriend would have been working under him, which is not allowed by World Bank policy, so he found her a job somewhere else. What else is he meant to do? If he'd let her stay in her original job then we'd be up in arms about his conflict of interest with his girlfriend working under him. Yet it would be a bit unfair to simply fire a woman from her job because her boyfriend happens to be given a job as her boss. Where else in DC other than the US state department would an Arabic specialist find a job? It seems an easy solution, and it's hardly like she isn't an asset, when, at least certainly the UK government, though I'm not sure about the US, has a lack of Arabic specialists. The fact the job pays more seems a bit immaterial to me, as someone who earned $130k at the World Bank, somewhere that while relatively decent, doesn't pay the highest of wages, is probably worth about $190k at the state department.

What were Wolfowitz's options here? He couldn't let he keep her original job, nor would it be fair to fire her for his conflict of interest issue. It would probably even be illegal to and considered a wrongful dismissal. So finding her another job that uses her specialism seems like the only sensible alternative, and who else other than the US government in Washington DC is going to hire an Arabic specialist?

I'm happy he's gone, although I don't see what he did to deserve it. Also, I do wish he could have been fired a couple of years later when Bush wouldn't get to appoint his successor.

[nebrarlepleme]

The fact the job pays more seems a bit immaterial to me, as someone who earned $130k at the World Bank, somewhere that while relatively decent, doesn't pay the highest of wages, is probably worth about $190k at the state department.

FYI, Riza makes more than the Secretary of State.

[soineeLom]

Originally posted by Drogue


What were Wolfowitz's options here? He couldn't let he keep her original job, nor would it be fair to fire her for his conflict of interest issue. It would probably even be illegal to and considered a wrongful dismissal. So finding her another job that uses her specialism seems like the only sensible alternative, and who else other than the US government in Washington DC is going to hire an Arabic specialist?
It seems that the wrongdoing was not the new assignment nor the salary increase but the fact that a salary increase greater than usual was resulting from a personnal decision of Wolfowitz. That was the "mistake", or conflict of interest, or nepotism.

[Unamannuato]

Originally posted by DanS
Wolfowitz got shafted. I have no love for Wolfowitz, but he was trying to clean up the World Bank. Nobody wants to get off the gravy train. is gravy train code for wolfowitz's dick?

[wCYvMKAc]

Poor Wolfy, victim of some evil conspiracy.

[dosugxxx]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
The fact the job pays more seems a bit immaterial to me, as someone who earned $130k at the World Bank, somewhere that while relatively decent, doesn't pay the highest of wages, is probably worth about $190k at the state department.
FYI, Riza makes more than the Secretary of State. Yes, and the top level of the civil service in the UK earn more than the Prime Minister. It's normal that employees at either the specialist or simply high levels of government earn more than appointed officials. Generally because an official's salary is put more into the public domain and seen as something needed to hold them accountable for, whereas the non-appointed professional civil service salaries aren't. I wouldn't be surprised if her salary was higher than Wolfowitz's as well.

Originally posted by DAVOUT
It seems that the wrongdoing was not the new assignment nor the salary increase but the fact that a salary increase greater than usual was resulting from a personnal decision of Wolfowitz. That was the "mistake", or conflict of interest, or nepotism. Possibly, though I wouldn't be surprised if the pay rise went with the job change - ie. if she'd resigned and applied for that job at the state department normally, would she have got the new level of pay anyway. Often people's pay changes considerably when they switch jobs. Even were it not to, giving her a pay rise to compensate for being forced out of her job seems reasonably fair to me.

[Zmniubqr]

It doesn't matter. Someone else will be put into place who will carry out the same sort of policies.