WASHINGTON — A special committee of the World Bank's governing board increased pressure on President Paul D. Wolfowitz to resign Monday, concluding that he went too far in arranging a job and pay raises for his companion.
The seven-member committee did not make its report public, but a bank official with ties to the panel said that Wolfowitz was given only a day or two to respond. The maneuver seemed designed to force him to step down quickly, thus avoiding further public action in the bruising controversy.
The report was characterized as an exhaustive, 300-page indictment of Wolfowitz's management of the international community's premier anti-poverty institution, according to sources familiar with the document. The sources declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak for the committee or the bank.
In a further sign of Wolfowitz's deteriorating position, one of his top aides, Kevin Kellems, resigned Monday. He had served as a senior advisor and director of external relations strategy during Wolfowitz's time at the bank.
"Given the current environment surrounding the leadership of the World Bank Group, it is very difficult to be effective in helping to advance the mission of the institution," Kellems said, adding that he was leaving to pursue other opportunities.
"I have tremendous respect and admiration for the bank staff and management and treasure the many friendships," he said.
Kellems had worked at the Pentagon when Wolfowitz was deputy defense secretary.
He and another top Wolfowitz aide, Robin Cleveland, had become a focus of criticism inside the bank, where staffers considered them more loyal to Bush administration policy than dedicated to the international mission of the World Bank.
Wolfowitz, who is two years into a five-year term as president, has vowed not to quit -- saying he acted in accordance with bank ethics rules and did nothing wrong in making the job arrangements for his companion, Shaha Ali Riza, who was already an official at the World Bank when he became president.
When he took office, Wolfowitz brought the possible conflict of interest to the board's attention, and it was agreed Riza should leave the bank. Exactly how the arrangements were made for her transfer to the State Department and her salary increases is in dispute.
