With her future now uncertain, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva released a statement on Friday, denying any wrongdoing, after the findings of an independent probe concluded that she helped boost China’s global ranking in a 2018 world economies report while she was World Bank head.
“Out of respect for due process, I have refrained from addressing many of the questions that have been raised about the 2018 Doing Business report at the World Bank and will continue to do so until I meet with the board of directors at the International Monetary Fund.
“It is important, however, to at least elaborate for the public and for the sake of the staff (members) of the IMF why I disagree with the investigative report’s conclusions with respect to my role in the Doing Business 2018 report,” the Bulgarian economist wrote in a statement.
World Bank of any kind.
Reviewing the integrity of these reports was within my professional responsibilities at that time, and, unlike what has been reported, I followed all protocols for editing the report.
The methodology used in the Doing Business report has been the subject of concerns over many years.
Like others in the World Bank before and since, I fundamentally viewed my role as overseeing the protection of the integrity of the report’s methodology, not its technical implementation.“
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) met on Tuesday for an initial briefing from the Ethics Committee on the matter related to Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva’s alleged role in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2018 as described in the Investigation’s Report.
The Board will meet soon to take a decision after hearing also from the United States, which is also reviewing the report.
Georgieva has fought hard for Africa, and although some of the loans she granted may be hard to pay, she ensured that African nations got the funds they needed during the coronavirus economic turmoil.
We will keep focusing on this story and see if she can sit down with us as she has done in the past. And that is our lead story today.
▪︎Story, except headline, written by Simon Ateba, publisher and White House correspondent for Today News Africa in Washington D.C.
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