US Senate Calls for Prosecuting IMF Managing Director over WB Audit Report

The US Senate Committee on International Relations has called on President Joe Biden to hold International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva accountable for the World Bank's audit report.

Committee members accuse Georgieva of various violations during the development of the Doing Business rating.

In its letter to Biden, the committee noted the seriousness of the accusations that Georgieva was compromising the integrity of the data and the World Bank itself, in order to please the Chinese government.

Members of the committee stressed that it is difficult, to date, to determine the extent to which these accusations have affected the strength and reputation of our international financial institutions and the Bretton Woods system.

"But this effect will certainly not be good," the letter said.

The senators noted that Georgieva had not provided them with any evidence that could refute the evidence of the independent audit.

The committee called on US President to assign the US Treasury Department to investigate the matter, and to hold those responsible.

On September 16, the World Bank published an audit report criticizing Georgieva's actions in preparing the Doing Business Rating in 2018, when this "woman" held the position of Executive Director of the World Bank.

According to the letter, various violations were committed to establishing the aforementioned classification. For example, the indicators of China, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE were overestimated, while the indicators of Azerbaijan were underestimated.

In these reports, the conditions available to businesses in different countries are usually evaluated.

Georgieva, for her part, said she did not agree at all with the report's conclusions about her work.

On September 16, the World Bank announced that it had decided to abandon the Doing Business rating preparation.

Georgieva criticized an independent report on her alleged role in a China-related data fraud scandal while at the World Bank.

She said the report contained "fundamental errors" and had resorted to speculation rather than facts.

It also accused the office of former head of the bank Jim Kong Kim of manipulation, reporting that his office had proposed including Hong Kong data in China's rating in the bank's Doing Business report issued in 2018 to boost China's rating.

Georgieva, who is facing calls to resign, criticized the report prepared by the legal services firm "Wilmer Hill", in a detailed statement to the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund, which is reviewing the matter.