‘Doing Business’ scandal: IMF Chief speaks
Georgieva terms probe’s findings ‘false and spurious’
IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva criticised as “false and spurious” the findings of an independent probe into allegations that as World Bank head she pressured staff to manipulate data to make China’s business climate appear more favourable.
In a statement she plans to present to the executive board of the International Monetary
Fund, Georgieva also accused the office of the World Bank’s past president, Jim Kong Kim, of manipulation.
She said she intervened to block a proposal from a member of Kim’s staff to include Hong Kong data in China’s ranking in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2018 report.
The World Bank last week released a report on the investigation by law firm WilmerHale.
It found that senior bank leaders including Georgieva unduly pressured staff to alter data to improve China’s ranking while the bank was seeking China’s support for a capital increase. Georgieva, then World Bank chief executive, has excoriated the probe publicly and to her staff.
The World Bank’s current president, David Malpass, has said the findings of the WilmerHale investigation speak for themselves, but has not commented in greater detail.
Georgieva said the WilmerHale probe wrongly inferred that she asked bank officials to manage China’s expectations about its ranking in the Doing Business report.