Washington: International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Kristalina Georgieva has been embroiled in a controversy over the misappropriation of a World Bank report. She has been accused of making changes in the ‘Doing Business Report’ of the World Bank to please China. While she was at the World Bank, she pressured employees to make changes to the report. In the bank’s investigation report, Georgieva has denied the allegations against her. At the same time, the World Bank has decided to immediately close this ‘Doing Business Report’ after it found irregularities in the investigation of the editions from 2018 to 2020.
What is the whole matter?
In this flagship report of the World Bank, countries are ranked on the basis of trade rules and economic reforms. By showing this report, the governments ask the investors to invest here. An investigation report by law firm WilmerHale found that Beijing complained about its 78th ranking in 2017 and was expected to be shown further lower in the rank next year.
In October 2017, just the last week before the report came out, Jim Kim, then president of the World Bank, and Georgieva (then CEO of the bank) asked their staff to change the methodology of the report to better reflect China’s score. Kim had discussed the ranking with senior Chinese officials, who were not happy with the ranking. Then the issue arose in it that how to improve this ranking?
Bank seeks help from China for capital?
It is believed that at that time the bank had sought help from China for capital. In lieu of that, an attempt was made to give him this advantage in the report. At present, no word has been said from Jim Kim regarding this report. In the ‘Doing Business 2018’ report, China jumped 7 places to rank 78th. This improvement in its ranking came after changes were made to the data methodology, which was completely different from the initial draft report.
Georgieva said – my image is getting tarnished
The IMF chief said in her statement that she denies the results of the investigation into data irregularities. Because this World Bank report is related to his role in 2018 and it can damage his image. At the same time, it also justifies the claim of America, in which it is often said that China is helped by a multilateral organization. The US Treasury Department said it was analyzing the report. He said that our first responsibility is to maintain the integrity of international financial institutions.
