New Delhi: The World Bank Group announced Thursday that it will discontinue its ‘Doing Business’ reports, an annual flagship report that the international financial institution has been publishing since 2002.
This comes after “data irregularities” were reported internally in an ethics review of Doing Business 2018 and 2020, in June this year. It prompted the organisation to pause the reports in August while an internal investigation was being carried out.
In a statement Thursday, the World Bank said that ethical concerns were raised, including the conduct of former Board officials as well as current and former Bank staff. The findings of the investigation revealed that top World Bank leaders, including then-Chief Executive Kristalina Georgieva, applied “undue pressure” on staff to boost China’s ranking in the bank’s “Doing Business 2018” report.
Georgieva, a Bulgarian national who has been serving as the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since October 2019, disputed the report.
“I disagree fundamentally with the findings and interpretations of the Investigation of Data Irregularities as it relates to my role in the World Bank’s Doing Business report of 2018. I have already had an initial briefing with the IMF’s Executive Board on this matter,” she said in a statement.
Having officially cancelled its ‘Doing Business’ reports, the World Bank said it will now work on a new approach to assess business and investment climate in countries, but did not provide further details.
Former World Bank president ‘pressured staff to boost China’s score’
The World Bank’s investigation, which was conducted by US law firm WilmerHale, said the staff of then-President Jim Yong Kim held meetings to find ways to improve China’s ranking in 2018. Georgieva then got involved to develop a way to make China look better without affecting the rankings of other countries.
The investigation’s findings state that both “direct and indirect” pressure was applied on staff by Kim to “change the methodology in an effort to boost China’s score”. Georgieva, and her adviser Simeon Djankov, pressured staff “to make specific changes to China’s data points in an effort to increase the ranking at precisely the same time the country was expected to play a key role in the Bank’s capital increase campaign”, it added.
The report also looked into accusations that the 2020 report was manipulated to bolster Saudi Arabia’s ranking, and that Djankov was involved in that too.
(Edited by Neha Mahajan)
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