The International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva has rejected allegations that she pressured World Bank staff to manipulate data in the Doing Business report to favor China during her tenure as the World Bank Group’s CEO.
“Let me put it very simply to you. Not true. Neither in this case, nor before or after, I have put pressure on staff to manipulate data,” Georgieva told IMF staff. The IMF chief said she highly values data and analysis and does not pressure staff to change it. She has led the IMF and its roughly 2,500 staff since 2019.
Paul Romer, a former World Bank chief economist, told Reuters Georgieva sidelined him from making the improvements for which he was hired to the bank’s integrity. He said Georgieva whitewashed his concerns about the Doing Business report’s data for Chile, which he believes may have shown bias against a former socialist government. “There was a willingness to do whatever worked or whatever seemed appropriate at any point without any guiding principles.”
A law firm WilmerHale had prepared a report at the request of the World Bank’s ethics committee. The report found that Georgieva and other senior World Bank officials applied ‘undue pressure’ on staff to boost China’s ranking in terms of business climate. WilmerHale said its working on a second report that will address ‘potential misconduct of staff members’ in connection with the data irregularities.
As such, the World Bank said it will cancel the Doing Business report series, which has run since 2003. This decision has dismayed investors who rely on the report to help them assess country risk. Critics and civil society groups regard this as a victory as they saw it as a troubled and politicized instrument that worsened inequality.
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Gerry Rice, IMF spokesperson, said the IMF’s executive board ethics committee is reviewing the report. “As part of the regular procedure in such matters, the ethics committee will report to the board,” he said.
