WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund said it will decide "very soon" whether its embattled managing director Kristalina Georgieva keeps her job. An investigation by a law firm has concluded that she manipulated data in favor of China while in a senior role at the World Bank. The IMF Executive Board said after a meeting Friday that it has made "significant progress" in its assessment of the case but agreed "to request more clarifying details with a view to very soon concluding its consideration of the matter." On Thursday Georgieva, 68, said she hoped for an "expeditious resolution" of the case.
The IMF Executive Board is reviewing last month's investigation by the law firm WilmerHale that found that during her time as World Bank CEO, Georgieva was among top officials who pressured staff into changing data to China's benefit in the 2018 edition of its closely watched Doing Business report. Georgieva spoke to the IMF board this week. She has repeatedly denied the report's conclusions, and on Thursday released a letter from her attorney to the board objecting to WilmerHale's findings, as well as her 12-page testimony to the 24 board members.
The law firm found that Georgieva along with her associate Simeon Djankov, a former Bulgarian finance minister who created the report, and Jim Yong Kim, then-president of the bank, pressured staff to change the calculation of China's ranking to avoid angering Beijing. The push came while bank leadership was engaged in sensitive negotiations with Beijing over increasing the bank's lending capital.
The Executive Board could meet again Saturday, a source close to the matter said on condition of anonymity. This source added that Georgieva has won the support of France and other European countries. The United States, a key member of the IMF, has not yet stated its position on this controversy, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. Time is of the essence because the IMF and the World Bank begin their fall meetings on Monday. - AFP