Five million a year for Wolfowitz' security.

Today's Telegraph reports that Wolfowitz' personal security detail is costing the World Bank (read: developing countries - ed.) five million dollars a year.

-- Jeff Powell ~ April 29, 2007
http://www.worldbankpresident.org
29/04/2007
Opponents have stepped up pressure by revealing that Mr Wolfowitz is costing the World Bank $5 million a year in personal security because he is such a prominent target for terrorists.

A senior bank source told The Sunday Telegraph: "It's a huge sum. We shouldn't have to be paying to protect him." A former senior employee added: "When his predecessor, Jim Wolfensohn, went on foreign trips, even to the Middle East, he was invariably met by the local country office driver, who would pick him up in a battered Volvo. Now, everywhere Wolfowitz goes he has to be accompanied by personal protection people."

Internal critics say that Mr Wolfowitz's appointment has endangered the security of other bank staff. The former employee said. "His mere presence puts other people at risk."

Mr Wolfowitz's decision to open an office in Iraq is also blamed for inflating the security bill. An anti-corruption specialist whose organisation works closely with the bank said: "It costs a fortune. The staff sit in the green zone in Baghdad. They have to go everywhere by helicopter and they have a private security company to protect them."

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