Washington (AFP)

The board of directors of the International Monetary Fund announced Monday evening that it was renewing "its full confidence" in Kristalina Georgieva, thus maintained in the post of managing director despite accusations of irregularities to which she was the subject.

The governing bodies of the institution considered that the information presented during the investigation did not allow to conclude to "an inappropriate role" of the Bulgarian economist.

For her part, Georgieva immediately welcomed this decision saying that these allegations were "unfounded".

The question of whether Ms. Georgieva, 68, would remain at the head of the Fund had been raised since the publication, on September 16, of the conclusions of an investigation by the law firm WilmerHale, carried out at the request of the ethics committee of the World Bank.

In this investigation, she was accused of having manipulated data from the "Doing Business" report to favor China when she was managing director of the World Bank.

The boss of the IMF has always denied the facts with which she was accused.

On Monday evening, the IMF said the decision was taken after an eighth board meeting on the issue, "as part of the board's commitment to conduct a comprehensive review. , objective and precise ".

"The Board found that the information presented during its review did not conclusively demonstrate that the CEO played an inappropriate role regarding the + Doing Business 2018+ report when she was CEO of the World Bank ", according to the press release.

"After examining all the evidence presented, the Management Board reaffirms its full confidence in the leadership and the ability of the Director General to continue to perform her duties effectively", adds the text.

The Council adds that it has confidence "in the commitment" of Mrs. Georgieva "to maintain the best standards of governance and integrity at the IMF".

"Trust and integrity are the cornerstones of the multinational organizations that I have faithfully served for over four decades," said Georgieva.

She stressed that this affair was "a difficult episode on a personal level" while expressing her "unwavering support for the independence and integrity" of the institutions.

© 2021 AFP