WASHINGTON - Embattled World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz is expected to fight to keep his job Tuesday after an investigation found he put his "personal interests" above bank rules and jeopardized the very mission of the development lender.
The former US deputy defense secretary is accused of personally arranging a lucrative pay-and-promotion package and transfer to the State Department for his companion and fellow bank employee, Shaha Riza.
He was due to appear before the bank's 24 executive directors at 5:00 pm (2100 GMT) to explain his actions.
"Again we support him, but we also know, and he has said, that he is willing to be sitting down with members of the World Bank to try to figure out the proper way to serve the best interests of the institution," White House spokesman Tony Snow said Tuesday.
Snow, who unreservedly has voiced support for the former Pentagon hawk of President George W. Bush's administration, commented after the release late Monday of a damning World Bank report.
In the 52-page report, an investigatory panel named by the executive board to examine accusations against Wolfowitz concluded that he had violated the terms of his contract, the bank's code of professional conduct and three staff rules.
"By involving himself in the specific terms of Ms. Riza external assignment, Mr. Wolfowitz acted in a manner that was inconsistent with his obligations to the bank," the report said.
Shortly after Wolfowitz's arrival at the helm of the bank in June 2005, Riza, who worked as a bank communications specialist, was transferred to the US State Department and received a generous pay increase, deemed "in excess" of bank standards by the panel, while still on the bank's payroll.
The bank's ethics committee had recommended the transfer of Riza but in supervising it and arranging for salary hikes and promotions Wolfowitz violated rules, the ad hoc panel found.
"The ad hoc group concludes that the president placed himself in a conflict of interest situation," they wrote.
However, the panel recognized one of Wolfowitz's arguments in his defense: that the ethics committee had failed to provide him clear guidance.
"The ad hoc Group acknowledges that the informal advice as provided by the ethics committee was not a model of clarity.
"It should have been drafted in language that would not leave open the possibility of misinterpretation."
But the overall conclusions of the report were scathing: "The current situation has generated a crisis not only in the management ranks, but across the institution," where a number of staff have openly called for Wolfowitz's resignation.
The panel also identified "erosion in the operational effectiveness of the bank" from the crisis, which undermines the bank's ability to collect funds for poor and developing countries.
After Wolfowitz testifies Tuesday, his fate belongs to the 185 members of the World Bank who will have to decide "whether Mr. Wolfowitz will be able to provide the leadership needed to ensure that the bank continues to operate to the fullest extent possible in achieving its mandate," according to the panel's recommendations.
It also proposed a review of the governance framework of the bank "with the aim of ensuring that it is capable of effectively dealing with the challenges raised for the institution."
The month-old scandal surrounding the US-picked president has riven the poverty-fighting bank, with most European countries lined up in calling for Wolfowitz's resignation.
The European Union's German presidency expressed hope Tuesday that the "integrity and credibility" of the World Bank could be restored
"There has to be a strong World Bank with a strong president," said German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
"What we hope is that the integrity and the credibility of the bank can be preserved, that is to say re-established," she told a news conference in Brussels.

05/15/2007 16:56 GMT