Image Credit: AFP (2018)
The International Monetary Fund has revealed on Sunday that it still has not come to any decision as to whether head Kristalina Georgieva will keep her job after allegations that she pressured the World Bank to give China a favourable rating in a report.
On Saturday the IMF board met again with representatives of the firm, WilmerHale, and with Georgieva over the weekend "with a view to very soon concluding its consideration of the matter," the IMF said in a statement.
Investigating law firm Wilmer Hale had published its findings in September which concluded that Georgieva had put "undue pressure" on World Bank staff to adjust the rating in the "Doing Business" report when she served as the chief executive officer. The report which measures ease and transparency of doing business in a particular economy has now been discontinued by the World Bank as its methodology has come under fire for its lack of objectivity.
Georgieva has denied all allegations even as the IMF struggles to keep its image afloat after a series of scandals. The US is also looking into the alleged manipulation, asserting that the matter is 'very serious'.
The investigation was precipitated by the remarks of Paul Romer, a Nobel prize winner and chief economist at the World Bank who said in an interview that Chinese pressure was a factor in staff altering draft reports. Romer's criticism of the "Doing Business" report in an interview with the Wall Street Journal raised many suspicions. He quit working at the World Bank after a falling out with Georgieva.