(Bloomberg) — International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva was called out Thursday by the World Bank, her previous employer, for applying pressure to boost China’s position in a ranking of economies.
Georgieva said she disagreed with the findings, compiled by an outside law firm at the World Bank’s direction.
The World Bank found such serious ethics issues in its probe of the “Doing Business” report that it decided to abandon the series entirely, a statement released in Washington showed.
China’s position in the 2018 report, released in October 2017, should have been seven places lower — at No. 85 rather than remaining at 78 — the World Bank said in a review released in December.
“The changes to China’s data in Doing Business 2018 appear to be the product of two distinct types of pressure applied by bank leadership on the Doing Business team,” the World Bank said in a report Thursday. The bank cited Georgieva, along with an adviser, for “pressure” to “make specific changes to China’s data points in an effort to increase its ranking at precisely the same time the country was expected to play a key role in the bank’s capital-increase campaign.”
‘Disagree Fundamentally’
Georgieva served as chief executive officer of the World Bank prior to being chosen to succeed Christine Lagarde as head of the IMF, the development lender’s partner in the Bretton Woods system.
“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,” Georgieva said in a statement. “I have already had an initial briefing with the IMF’s Executive Board on this matter.”
The U.S. Treasury, which manages the country’s engagement with the IMF and World Bank, said it was reviewing the report. The U.S. has an outsize role in decisions at the Washington-based lenders because of the weight of its voting power.
“These are serious findings and Treasury is analyzing the report,” Treasury spokesperson Alexandra LaManna said. “Our primary responsibility is to uphold the integrity of international financial institutions.”
‘Sensitive Negotiations’
The probe was produced by the law firm WilmerHale, which was retained by the World Bank executive board’s ethics committee — the body responsible for ethical matters involving board officials. The findings were shared with the World Bank’s executive directors Wednesday, and the board authorized their release.
From mid-2017 to April 2018, World Bank management was “consumed with sensitive negotiations” over boosting the lender’s capital, and China at the time was “apprehensive” about how its ownership share would be recalculated as a result of that process, the WillmerHale report said.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, the institution’s top leader at the time, was overseeing the talks along with Georgieva, and both of them pointed in interviews to the tensions surrounding the process, WillmerHale said.
Against that backdrop, Chinese officials repeatedly told Kim and other top World Bank officials that the 2017 Doing Business report had failed to reflect China’s reforms, the report said. As it became clear that the draft 2018 report would show a drop in China’s ranking, staff discussed options including incorporating data from Taiwan and Hong Kong into the mainland’s rating, the report showed.
Georgieva’s Role
Georgieva, who in an Oct. 18, 2017, meeting represented that she was now overseeing the issue, ruled out incorporating Hong Kong data for political reasons. Georgieva asked a “Mr. Djankov” to guide the Doing Business report to final publication, and he worked with the unit to “identify changes to China’s data that would raise the country’s score,” the WillmerHale findings showed.
After searching for data points that wouldn’t also alter other country’s ratings — such as putting greater weight on major cities — officials concluded that adjusting China’s “legal rights indicator” was an “ideal vehicle” thanks to differing expert opinions on the effect of Chinese law, the report said. Tweaking the assessment helped China keep its prior ranking, and “Mr. Djankov” then authorized publication.
“Georgieva’s actions following changes to China’s data confirm her involvement,” the review found. WillmerHale cited her thanks, after the changes, to the senior director for Development Economics for “doing his ‘part for multilateralism,’” and her visit to the home of the Doing Business manager the weekend after the report was published to thank the manager for resolving the China problem, the report showed.
WillmerHale identified “no evidence” Kim had directly ordered illegitmate changes to China’s data, although the Doing Business manager said “it was clear that aides in President Kim’s office were acting on his behalf,” the report showed.
Past Troubles
Many Republican lawmakers have opposed expanding support for the World Bank and IMF, and Thursday’s news could renew GOP criticism.
The Doing Business report plays a notable role in emerging markets, with governments often showcasing moves up in ranking in appeals for foreign investment. But the integrity of the ratings has been the source of heated debate in recent years. Paul Romer quit in 2018 as the World Bank’s chief economist after questioning changes to Chile’s order in the report.
Read More: World Bank Corrects Country Rankings After Probe of Altered Data
The WillmerHale probe also looked at issues surrounding the ratings of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan.
“After reviewing all the information available to date on Doing Business, including the findings of past reviews, audits, and the report the bank released today on behalf of the Board of Executive Directors, World Bank Group management has taken the decision to discontinue the Doing Business report,” the World Bank said Thursday.
The IMF and World Bank have confronted a number of ethics issues over the years. Former French Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned as head of the fund in 2011 after charges of sexual assault in a New York hotel room, which were eventually dropped. In 2007, Paul Wolfowitz, a top Pentagon official in the Bush administration, stepped down as head of the World Bank over his involvement in arranging a pay increase and promotion for his companion.
(Adds detailed findings from report, starting in second paragraph after ‘Sensitive Negotiations’ subheadline.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
