A storm of controversy threatens to undermine Kristalina Georgieva's leadership of the IMF as experts, US lawmakers and the Treasury scrutinize her actions in a former senior role at the World Bank.
The situation also could present a challenge to Democratic US President Joe Biden's administration, since it gives fodder to Republicans dubious of, if not outright hostile to, the multilateral institutions, especially their dealings with China.
"Neither in this case nor before or after have I put pressure on staff to manipulate data. I would ask staff to please check, double-check, triple-check, but never change, never manipulate what the data tells us," she said according to The New York Times, which obtained a transcript of her remarks. The United States will be crucial in determining Georgieva's fate since Washington holds the biggest voting share in the International Monetary Fund, and the Treasury on Thursday said it was analyzing the report.
A spokesperson said the IMF board, which was scheduled to meet Friday, "is currently reviewing this matter," without providing further details.House Representative French Hill called the report "alarming" and said the multilateral lenders' "reputation is now tarnished." The probe also 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.
"For the head of the IMF to have been involved in data manipulation is a pretty damning allegation," he told AFP. "That does seem like a real hit on their credibility."
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