World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, who spends a fair bit of his time lecturing Third World countries about the evils of corruption, is caught up in a scandal about his romantic partner getting a promotion and generous pay rises. More details from The Guardian.

The latest developments have outraged the bank's 13,000 employees who reckon this sort of arrangement is inconsistent with staff guidelines. You can read more about that in the staff association email here.

Wolfowitz's office originally came out with the line that the pay rises had been approved by the ethics committee of the board but the latest news reports reveal this is not true.

Actually, the situation reflects a deeper problem at the World Bank.

Since he was parachuted into the job, the former Bush administration hawk has been accused of bringing in a small group of outsiders as political advisers with little expertise in development while driving away seasoned managers. More to the point, he has been accused of appointing political allies from the US Republican Party to key posts. New faces include counsellor to the president Robin Cleveland. As associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Cleveland helped secure congressional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kevin Kellems, a former spokesman for Vice-President Dick Cheney, became director of external strategy. Suzanne Rich Folsom, who joined in 2003, is the bank's chief corruption fighter. She's married to George Folsom, who was principal deputy director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office and president of the International Republican Institute.

Meanwhile. there's been an exodus of talent including the bank's vice-president in charge of the Middle East, Christiaan Poortman, who resigned following a confrontation with Wolfowitz in August 2006 over refusing to send more staff to Iraq. Poortman had been there for 30 years.

Promoting and rewarding a well-positioned female staffer is appalling. But it's consistent with what's already been happening over there.