World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz lied at a hearing on Monday when he said a bank ethics panel had advised him to give his girlfriend a promotion, the Dutch news agency ANP reported Wednesday.

Ad Melkert, chairman of the ethics committee at the World Bank at the time, told a Dutch TV program Tuesday that Wolfowitz "certainly did not tell the truth," ANP said.

Melkert is the former Dutch social affairs minister and a former leader of the Dutch Labor Party, one of the three parties in the current coalition government.

"We are said to have approved the remarkable pay package for Ms. (Shaha) Riza and that was not at all the case," he said in television program NOVA.

Riza had to be transferred because she was in a relationship with Wolfowitz when he was appointed president of the bank. A promotion was justified in order to compensate for the disruption of her career, Melkert said.

But Melkert said Wolfowitz gave his girlfriend a higher promotion than recommended and an excessively high salary.

"The promotion was processed according to our recommendation. But we did not get involved with the exact terms and conditions under which the promotion took effect," he said.

Melkert refrained from commenting on whether Wolfowitz should resign.

Source: Xinhua