Germany's World Bank Director Lobbies Board to Oust Wolfowitz

May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Germany's director on the World Bank board is under orders from his government to press for the ouster of President Paul Wolfowitz over his role in giving his companion a pay raise, a European official said.

The German director, Eckhard Deutscher, has been told to rally opinion on the 24-person board against Wolfowitz, who was found to have violated the bank's ethics rules. Germany wants Wolfowitz out before Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts a Berlin forum on Africa in two weeks, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Deutscher declined to comment.

Deutscher, 58, is the dean of the World Bank's executive board and represents its third-largest shareholder, after the U.S. and Japan. European finance ministers today stepped up their criticism of Wolfowitz, saying the uproar over the pay- and-promotion package for his partner had hobbled his ability to lead the world's largest development agency.

``We need a president with a good reputation and good integrity,'' Finance Minister Wouter Bos of the Netherlands told reporters today in Brussels, where he attended a meeting with European counterparts. ``I have serious doubts.''