Very good news to see the World Bank finally end the ideological nonsense that was its 'Doing Business' rankings. But the report the Bank has published on the reasons why is almost unbelievable - the extent of corruption in the organisation is just mindblowing.
The report is the result of an independent external review which the Bank commissioned (fair play) to look at the revelations about manipulation of the data and rankings in 2018 and 2020.
thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/84a922c…
thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/84a922c…
The review points the finger variously at then-President Kim (or aides) & then-CEO Georgieva, who apparently pushed to change results for China- due to concerns over the implications of the country's view of its Doing Business score for the Bank's prospect for capital raising...
..and at Simeon Djankov, famously the only person to accuse my former CGD colleagues of being Communists, who seems to have made arbitrarily biased decisions about some countries while presiding over a toxic culture including fear and threats of retaliation.
The detail of how the sausage was made are harrowing for anyone who has ever worked honestly on an index: from trying to add Hong Kong or Macao's scores to China's, or taking the best score for any Chinese city for any variable, or suppressing Azeri improvements just because...
...or suppressing Jordanian improvements in order to give a better position to Saudi Arabia (who had a major contract with Bank to er improve their Doing Business score)...
The World Bank has published what appear to be claims of fairly blatant corruption by a whole range of senior staff, and effectively *of the organisation itself*. Its flagship product was manipulated in the service of raising money for itself.
There's only a passing mention of PwC's Paying Tax component - it was one of three indicators manipulated (that is, changed from the real data) in order to give China a better score.
Congratulations to @DavidMalpassWBG for the decision to publish this savage review and to eliminate the Doing Business rankings.
The bigger question is how, if it is even possible, the Bank can eliminate the apparent corruption of the institution that the review documents.
The bigger question is how, if it is even possible, the Bank can eliminate the apparent corruption of the institution that the review documents.
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