[ad_1]
Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund reportedthat completed an audit of the actions of the fund’s managing director Kristalina Georgieva in connection with the revealed violations in the preparation of the rating of the business climate in 2018. No evidence of her guilt was found.
The council expressed confidence in Georgieva and decided not to remove her from office. The governing body stressed that there were eight meetings on this topic, two detailed discussions with Georgieva and representatives of the law firm WilmerHale, which identified violations in the compilation of the rating.
“The Executive Board considered that the information provided does not provide conclusive evidence that the managing director played an inappropriate role in the preparation of the Doing Business report in 2018, when she was the head of the World Bank,” the IMF said in a press release.
The fund believes that Georgieva is capable of “effectively performing the duties” of the managing director. “The Council is confident in Georgieva’s commitment to maintaining the highest standards of governance and objectivity at the IMF,” the press release said. It also emphasizes that the board “believes in the impartiality and analytical prowess” of the IMF staff.
A review of potential misconduct by World Bank staff in preparing the Doing Business rankings is ongoing, the fund said in a statement.
In September, the World Bank announced that it was stopping the publication of the Doing Business business climate rating due to gross violations in the preparation of previous reports. The WB then published a 16-page report from the firm WilmerHale, which it had previously hired to investigate violations in the preparation of the Doing Business rating for 2017 and 2019. These violations influenced, in particular, China’s ranking in the 2017 survey. As a result, the PRC remained in 78th place, although it should have gone down to 85th. The figures for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were also overestimated, while the data for Azerbaijan were underestimated.
The report stated that Georgieva, who at that time was the executive director of the WB group, was actively involved in the internal discussion about the need to move the PRC up in the ranking. She allegedly demanded “specific changes to China’s dataset to improve its position.” And the President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, insisted that the compilers of the rating change the methodology. The discussion took place against the background of the discussion of the increase in capital of the WB itself, in which Beijing played an important role.
In 2018, World Bank Chief Economist Paul Romer, who claimed to have manipulated ratings, gone resign. In his last months of work in internal correspondence, Romer accused colleagues of “obviously fabricated data” and “shameless self-promotion.” He also stated in interview The Wall Street Journal that the World Bank has repeatedly changed the methodology for compiling the Doing Business rating, which could contribute to manipulation.
After the publication of the WilmerHale report, the WB made a decision to stop release of the Doing Business rating.
During the investigation into the circumstances of the rating, information also emerged that, already during her work at the IMF, Georgieva prompted the fund’s staff to soften criticism of the environmental policy of Brazil after the intervention of the government of this country. The Foundation, responding to the allegations, said that the decision to change the wording in the report was taken as part of the standard procedure, writes the publication “Ministry of Finance”. According to the spokesman, “The IMF considers climate change to be a critical issue for the economy and has very clearly expressed this position in the report on Brazil.”
Georgieva denied all accusations of rating manipulation.
Financial Times sources reported that the United States and Japan, two of the IMF’s largest shareholders, were in favor of Georgieva’s resignation as the fund’s managing director, while France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, China and Russia tended to keep her post. …
The head of the IMF is traditionally chosen by European countries, and the United States nominates a candidate for the post of President of the World Bank.
In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who repeatedly mentioned the Doing Business rating in his keynote speeches, instructed the government to achieve Russia’s entry into the top 20 by 2024. Over the past 10 years, the country has climbed 90 positions, reaching 28th place last year. However, economists noted that the rating did not reflect the real situation in the economy.
“In the ranking, our country is in a high 22nd place in terms of ease of obtaining a loan, – spoke “Izvestia” economist Alexander Shirov. – Indeed, the procedure for obtaining is simple if your business meets certain criteria. The trouble is that 90% of small and medium-sized businesses do not match them … Seeing as a competitive economy does not mean being. “
[ad_2]
Source link
