IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva criticized as false and spurious the findings of an independent probe into allegations that as World Bank head she pressured employees to manipulate information to make China’s company climate seem more favorable.
In a statement she plans to present to the IMF’s executive board, Georgieva also accused the workplace of the bank’s previous president, Jim Kong Kim, of manipulation.
She stated she intervened to block a proposal from a member of his employees to incorporate Hong Kong information in China’s ranking in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2018 report, which would have substantially enhanced its standing. Kim has not responded to requests for comment.
The bank last week released a report on the investigation by law firm WilmerHale. It discovered that senior bank leaders like Georgieva unduly pressured employees to alter information to boost China’s ranking in the Doing Business report whilst the bank was in search of China’s help for a capital raise.
Georgieva, then World Bank chief executive, has excoriated the probe publicly and to her employees, but she went into higher detail in the statement to the IMF’s executive board, a copy of which was viewed by Reuters on Friday.
She stated the probe’s findings contained “the false and spurious insinuation … that my colleagues and I at the World Bank would inflate a country’s Doing Business ranking in exchange for capital commitments.”
“To be clear: no such thing happened and no such thing would ever happen under my leadership,” she stated.
She stated her work to stop Hong Kong information from becoming added to China’s Doing Business ranking demonstrated her concern for preserving the integrity of World Bank information.
The Bulgarian economist, the very first particular person from a establishing nation to head the bank, has faced calls for her resignation more than the matter, even as former colleagues have spoken out in help of her.
The IMF board met on Tuesday to hear an initial report from its ethics committee and agreed to meet once more quickly.
The bank’s existing president, David Malpass, has stated findings of the WilmerHale investigation speak for themselves but has not commented in higher detail.
Georgieva stated the WilmerHale probe wrongly inferred that she asked bank officials to handle China’s expectations about its ranking in the Doing Business report for the reason that she was worried that China could withhold help for the capital raise.
Georgieva stated she did regret that colleagues at the bank “did not believe that they could speak out to raise with me issues about data integrity,” and was committed to fostering superior communication.