The corruption within the World Bank

Dr. Jassim Taqui

DG Al-Bab Institute for Strategic Studies

Islamabad, September 30, 2021: The top Democrat and Republican on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee have urged President Joe Biden to "ensure full accountability" over a World Bank data-rigging controversy that has embroiled International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva.

The panel's chairman, Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat, and Republican Senator James Risch, said in a letter released on Monday that Biden should direct the U.S. Treasury Department to "do their due diligence with all due haste and, as necessary, ensure full accountability."

Georgieva, who has been the IMF's managing director since April 2019, is pushing back against allegations in a World Bank outside investigation report that when she was the bank's CEO in 2017, she applied "undue pressure" on staff to make data changes that boosted China's rankings in the World Bank's flagship "Doing Business" report on country investment climates.

On Friday, Georgieva called the allegations against her "false and spurious" and accused the office of the World Bank's past president, Jim Yong Kim, of manipulating the data.

European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis met with Georgieva on Monday in Washington and issued a supportive tweet, saying: "Always good to see IMF’s @KGeorgieva," and that the IMF has shown "real leadership" in the distribution of monetary reserves to member countries.

Thus far, the U.S. Treasury Department -- which controls the dominant U.S. shareholdings in both organizations -- has said little about the matter beyond that it is studying the allegations against Georgieva.

Treasury spokeswoman Alexandra LaManna declined to comment on a Bloomberg report  that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has declined to take calls from Georgieva since the controversy broke 10 days ago. A personal spokesperson for Georgieva declined to comment on the report.

Evidently, corruption is now prevailing in all monetary institutions and governments. Pakistan is not the only culprit.

The episode requires investigation and wide-ranging reforms of the World Bank and the IMF.