(May 3, 2007) Nearly 1,400 employees make more than Condi Rice.

Renaissance Pope Adrian VI once said of the Roman Curia that its sins “were so widespread that those afflicted by the vice did not even notice the stench anymore.” It’s a line that could also describe the World Bank staff and its outrage over the “scandalous” raise Paul Wolfowitz awarded his girlfriend Shaha Riza when he became president.

If it’s transparency over salaries that bank employees want, by all means let’s have it. Specifically, let’s make public the names, salaries and benefits of every bank employee who makes more than Ms. Riza. American taxpayers supply some 17% of the bank’s capital, and a new round of fund raising for the bank’s International Development Association is about to commence. If Congress is going to ante up the $7 billion or so the bank is expected to request, the least it can do is insist on more accountability.

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Wall Street Journal Opinion, May 3, 2007