‘Simply untrue’: IMF’s Georgieva pushes back on World Bank probe

The report has put IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva at risk of seeing her authority undermined just weeks before an annual meeting of global finance chiefs.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva this week gave the lender’s board a more detailed defense against accusations that she improperly influenced a report in China’s favor in her previous job at the World Bank.

In a three-page letter to the head of the board’s ethics committee dated Sept. 21 and obtained by Bloomberg News, Georgieva — who at the time was the World Bank’s chief executive officer — said she was surprised by law firm WilmerHale’s conclusion in a Sept. 15 audit report that she played a “key role” in changes related to China’s ranking in the Doing Business 2018 report.

“This is simply untrue,” Georgieva wrote. “The premise on which this accusation is built — that I pressured staff to inflate China’s Doing Business 2018 ranking because of the Bank’s capital increase — is wrong and based on fundamental misunderstandings of my role as CEO of the World Bank, the work on capital increase, my involvement in Doing Business 2018, and how I carry myself personally and professionally.”