Independent experts confirm data manipulation, the bank took money from countries to improve their rating
A second report exposes data manipulations in the preparation of the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking, he said.Labor“.
Last week, the World Bank released a report from Wilmer Hale, which directly stated that Kristalina Georgieva, who is now the IMF’s managing director while the bank’s chief executive, was pressuring employees, so China’s position in the ranking to be promoted.
A few weeks before the World Bank withdrew its Doing Business report, a group of outside advisers recommended a rating revision to limit some countries’ efforts to manipulate their results, Reuters reported.
The 84-page analysis was prepared by high-ranking scientists and economists, including the former Colombian finance minister.
The report was published on the World Bank’s website on Monday, about three weeks after it was handed to the institution’s chief economist, Carmen Reinhart, Reuters reports. The analysis was prepared by a group formed by the bank in December 2020, after a series of internal audits revealed data irregularities in the reports for China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan. The report calls for the elimination of irregularities and for reforms in order to achieve the “methodological honesty” of the “Doing Business” ranking. It also talks about a “model of government efforts to intervene” in the results of previous years.
Experts have criticized the Doing Business ranking for lack of transparency about the essential data and the questionnaires used to calculate the ratings, calling for a “firewall” between the ranking team and other World Bank activities.
“We were informed about repeated cases in which national governments have tried to manipulate the rankings, putting pressure on individuals contributing to its preparation, “the report said, referring to lawyers, accountants or other professionals.
The authors of the review called on the World Bank to stop selling consulting services to governments in order to improve the rating of countries, noting that this is an obvious conflict of interest. “The World Bank should not simultaneously assess countries’ business environments while accepting payments to advise countries on how to improve their assessments,” the report said.
The World Bank offers similar services to a number of countries, including some involved in the data manipulation investigation, such as China and Saudi Arabia, the report said.
It recalls that in December last year an internal audit showed that World Bank management has pressured 9 out of 15 employees to manipulate data in the editions of the “Doing Business” ranking in 2018 and 2020 in favor of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and China, while Azerbaijan was removed from the top 10.
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