Washington (AFP)

The IMF's board of directors is due to meet on Sunday with representatives of the law firm WilmerHale, responsible for an investigation that implicated the director general of the institution, Kristalina Georgieva, we learned on Saturday from a source close to the case.

The council wishes indeed to obtain details on this investigation, "with the idea of ​​reaching a conclusion very soon" on the maintenance or not of Mrs. Georgieva at its head, had indicated Friday a spokesperson of the International Monetary Fund (IMF ).

The board of directors has already met three times this week, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, to discuss the situation of its director general, accused of having manipulated data from a report in favor of China when she was Managing Director of the World Bank.

It has received the support of France, and more broadly from European member countries, a source close to the matter told AFP on Friday, on condition of anonymity.

On the other hand, the United States, a crucial member of the IMF, have so far not let their position filter and seemed reluctant to give their agreement, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Time is running out as the IMF and World Bank begin their fall meetings on Monday.

Ms. Georgieva, 68, has been in the hot seat since the publication, in mid-September, of the findings of an investigation by law firm WilmerHale, carried out at the request of the World Bank's ethics committee.

This investigation revealed irregularities in the drafting of the 2018 and 2020 editions of the World Bank's "Doing Business" report.

And its authors accused Kristalina Georgieva of putting pressure on her teams when she was managing director of the World Bank so that China obtained a more favorable ranking.

A woman walks past IMF headquarters in Washington, October 7, 2021 MANDEL NGAN AFP / Archives

Ms Georgieva, of Bulgarian origin and an economist by training, denies outright the charges.

- Pressure -

Wednesday, before the board of directors, she deplored "inaccuracies and mistaken assumptions made by the authors of the report".

The next day, Ms Georgieva published a letter from her lawyer to the board challenging the WilmerHale firm's findings, along with 12 pages of her testimony to the 24 board members.

The IMF emblem, on the facade of its headquarters in Washington, October 7, 2021 MANDEL NGAN AFP / Archives

"I am happy to have finally had the opportunity to explain to the IMF's board of directors my role in the Doing Business report," said the IMF director, claiming to have "respected the integrity of the report".

"I hope for a quick resolution of this matter," she added.

The "Doing Business" report, whose publication was immediately suspended after the revelations, scrutinized the regulatory framework of countries to find out which ones are most favorable to starting a business.

It has been the subject of much controversy, leading to the resignation of the chief economist of the World Bank Paul Romer.

The WilmerHale cabinet claims to have established that Ms Gerogieva and one of her advisers, Simeon Djankov, one of the initiators of Doing Business, former Bulgarian finance minister, as well as Jim Yong Kim, then president of the World Bank, pressured the teams to move China up the rankings and not trigger Beijing's anger.

At the time of writing, the World Bank was negotiating, notably with the Chinese regime, a historic increase of 13 billion dollars in its resources.

Ms. Georgieva took over as head of the Fund on October 1, 2019, succeeding Christine Lagarde appointed to the European Central Bank (ECB).

© 2021 AFP