The Wolfowitz-Riza World Bank Kerfuffle
It’s interesting how all the documents in the Wolfowitz World Bank controversy support his claim to have acted openly and honestly and contradict the unsupported assertions of his critics. Rarely do documents so clearly show important people (e.g., the former chairman of the WB ethics committee and the former chief lawyer of the WB) to be liars. Fox News has detailed stories on April 14 and April 19 with links to the original documents.
One point which has not been made clear is that although Shaha Riza received both a raise and a promotion, the raise was simply from the mid-level for her old rank to the mid-level of her new rank. The claim that a raise OR a promotion but not both were authorized looks pretty silly. Indeed, what is the promotion worth without the raise? Is it really grander to be a class H instead of a class G employee? I guess I should boast that I was once a GS-9!
Her net wages rose from $132,660 to $193,590, the April 14 story says, which must include the annual pay raise after the $180,000 salary that Wolfowitz assigned her in the key memo he wrote to the personnel office. World Bank salary table from its 2006 Annual Report— something anybody should have been able to check– shows the salary ranges.
World Bank Group Staff Salary Structure (effective July 1, 2005) |
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| Grades | Minimum | Market reference point |
Maximum | Representatitve job titles |
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| A | 22,820 | 29,660 | 38,550 | Office assistant |
| B | 27,620 | 35,910 | 50,270 | Team assistant, information technician |
| C | 33,570 | 43,640 | 61,100 | Program assistant, information assistant |
| D | 38,950 | 50,630 | 70,880 | Senior program assistant, information specialist, budget assistant |
| E | 51,010 | 66,310 | 92,830 | Analyst |
| F | 69,400 | 90,220 | 126,310 | Professional |
| G | 92,230 | 119,900 | 167,860 | Senior professional |
| H | 129,140 | 167,890 | 226,650 | Manager, lead professional |
| I | 179,040 | 223,800 | 268,560 | Director, senior advisor |
| J | 224,800 | 251,775 | 289,540 | Vice president |
| K | 249,770 | 283,247 | 311,530 | Managing director, senior vice president |
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| Note: Because World Bank Group (WBG) staff, other than U.S. citizens, usually are not required to pay income taxes on their WBG compensation, the salaries are set on a net-of-tax basis, which is generally equivalent to the after-tax take-home pay of the employees of the comparator organizations and firms from which WBG salaries are derived. Only very few staff will reach the upper third of the salary range at a grade level. | ||||
May 1: The WSJ reports today that no fewer than 1,396 World Bank employees are at Miss Riza’s current pay grade or higher. That’s out of, if I recall rightly, just 8,500 employees! The WSJ report also notes that violation of the nepotism rule seems to be common at the Bank, one notable case being that of the surprisingly-promoted wife of the former number 2, a prominent critic of Wolfowitz.