Newsmaker

Pentagon cleared Wolfowitz in hiring of girlfriend

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-04-20 06:41

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon's inspector general looked into the Defense Department's 2003 order for a contractor to hire the girlfriend of then - Pentagon No. 2 Paul Wolfowitz, but found no violation to warrant a deeper probe, defense officials said on Thursday.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz listens during a news conference at the conclusion of the 2007 Spring meetings at IMF headquarters in Washington, Sunday, April 15, 2007. [AP]

A 2005 investigation by the inspector general found that Shaha Riza, Wolfowitz's companion and a World Bank employee, was qualified to serve as an expert to carry out a study related to Iraq, investigation results show.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Wolfowitz may have recommended Riza for the job, but she was also recommended by others and was uniquely qualified.

Wolfowitz, a key Iraq war architect who left the Pentagon in 2005 to become president of the World Bank, is under fire for overseeing a high-paying promotion for Riza after he took the helm of the poverty-fighting global lender.

Critics, including some members of Congress, have said Wolfowitz, who made fighting corruption in third world countries a central theme of his tenure, should resign.

A defense contractor, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), said on Tuesday that during Wolfowitz's tenure at the Pentagon, the Defense Department ordered the company to hire Riza for a short-term mission as an Iraq expert.

Contract documents and a 2004 Pentagon inspector general report on Iraq contracts corroborated SAIC's claim.

The Pentagon's Inspector General launched a probe in 2005 of the decision to determine whether Wolfowitz used his office for the gain of a personal friend.

Results of that probe said there was "insufficient basis to warrant further investigation."