Cronies Abandoning Judgment, too? ...Bank staff are shaking their heads now about about whether Wolfowitz appointee, Czarina of Institutional Integrity, Suzanne Folsom, too, has lost her mind.

Two weeks ago, after news of Shaha Riza's 2003 trip to Baghdad with SAIC at the direction of boyfriend Paul Wolfowitz's office, Suzanne told Bank VPs that the trip to Baghdad was just fine since Shaha had told her supervisor. That turned out to be false, as her boss at the time, Jean-Louis Sarbib, has subsequently told the press. Has Suzanne no shame?

The professionals in INT, which include former practicing lawyers and prosecutors, US Attorneys (and not a few of republican bent) must be deeply concerned about their future with this kind of suck-up leadership. Everyone familiar with Bank conflict of interest rules knows they would be fired for failing to tell supervisor that they were going with a defence contractor on a DoD mission. Surely the Audit Committee will agree, based on Sarbib's public statement that he didn't know and wouldn't have allowed it.

Well, isn't it a conflict of interest for head of INT to be counselor to President, a title Ms. Folsom has conspicuously dropped using on her emails in the past ten days? What's she counselling Paul Wolfowitz on these days? And how good is her advice?

Let's remember this is not just about what the Board circulated on April 13. There was the whistleblower letter of January 2006 that the Board blew off, too, where the facts were all laid out. Paul Wolfowitz told the Personnel Committee all about the facts then, but they are in a strictly confidential minute of that meeting.

Meanwhile, on a beautiful Sunday in Washington, Wolfowitz hired-hand Bob Bennett seems to be having a quiet day, taking brunch somewhere perhaps, perhaps looking for some more Alice in Wonderland to quote to anyone who will take his calls. After all, that's what Paul Wolfowitz is paying him for.

But the issue remains corporate governance and the fitness of a chief executive to lead an organization, any organization, with these ethical lapses, abuse of power, conflicts of interest, and cover-ups. Last week, the Dean of Admissions at MIT resigned, as did the head of USAID. No lawyers, no procrastinating, no defiant statements. They just went quietly. And promptly.

What is Suzanne Rich Folsom counselling Paul Wolfowitz to do? With the Bank's Ethics Officer forced out, there's only Suzanne, Director of Institutional Integrity, to turn to. Not very encouraging...

Deep Insider ~ April 29, 2007

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