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Results-focussed aid? Not on W's watch In the World Bank a lot of store is supposedly set by 'managing for results'. Sounds techie, but it's meant to mean that aid money is allocated where it will be most useful. As if the fuss about the World Bank paying Wolfowitz's partner Riza more than Condoleeza Rice was not bad enough, it now emerges she has hardly achieved anything in her job. Following a brief stint at the State Department she's been supposed to be setting up an organisation called Foundation for the Future. But the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire blog reported just now that the organisation "remains very much a shell".
The WSJ continues that it has no permanent headquarters and has yet to issue any grants. Its Web site lists no phone number or address.
How long has she had to get results? Since September 2005. The WSJ has dug out a State Department letter from Sept. 16, 2005 (PDF) which said that Riza would be made �senior adviser in charge of establishing� the new foundation, helping pick its board of directors and supervising its launch.
Wolfowitz knows very well that the Middle East is a difficult region to get things done. But giving exorbitant payrises to someone who has yet to do more than hold a board and committee meeting, launch a logo competition and discuss a possible conference (all according to the WSJ's sleuths) is hard for anyone to comprehend.
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