World Bank reports internal irregularities in its Doing Business report
By Trend
A number of irregularities internal to the World Bank have been
reported regarding changes to the data in the Doing Business 2018
and Doing Business 2020 reports, published in October 2017 and
2019, a source in the World Bank told Trend.
These irregularities were reported by staff inside the Bank, added
the source.
The source noted that data changes caused Azerbaijan to drop in the
rankings.
“The changes in the data were inconsistent with the Doing Business
methodology,” reads the WB statement.
The audit and review will help confirm what happened in the
processes.
Azerbaijan ranked 57th and 34th among 190 countries in Doing
Business 2018 and Doing Business 2020, respectively.
The World Bank Group today issued the following statement on the
Doing Business Report:
Over the 17 years of its existence, the Doing Business report has been a valued tool for countries seeking to measure costs of doing business. Doing Business indicators and methodology are designed with no single country in mind, but rather to help to improve the overall business climate.
A number of irregularities have been reported regarding changes to the data in the Doing Business 2018 and Doing Business 2020 reports, published in October 2017 and 2019. The changes in the data were inconsistent with the Doing Business methodology.
The integrity and impartiality of our data and analysis is paramount and so we are immediately taking the following actions:
• We are conducting a systematic review and assessment of data changes that occurred subsequent to the institutional data review process for the last five Doing Business reports.
• We have asked the World Bank Group’s independent Internal Audit function to perform an audit of the processes for data collection and review for Doing Business and the controls to safeguard data integrity.
We will act based on the findings and will retrospectively correct the data of countries that were most affected by the irregularities.
The Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank has been briefed on the situation as have the authorities of the countries that were most affected by the data irregularities.
The publication of the Doing Business report will be paused as we conduct our assessment.
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