September 17: The World Bank Group had decided to discontinue its Doing Business Report after a series of reviews regarding irregularities in data of the past reports.

The World Bank issued a statement on Thursday (September 16) informing about the decision taken by the Board of Executive Directors of the bank to discontinue the Doing Business Report.

According to the World Bank, data irregularities on Doing Business 2018 and 2020 were reported internally in June 2020. Following the reports of irregularities, the World Bank management paused the next Doing Business report and initiated a series of reviews and audits of the report and its methodology.

“Because the internal reports raised ethical matters, including the conduct of former Board officials as well as current and/or former Bank staff, management reported the allegations to the Bank’s appropriate internal accountability mechanisms,” the statement said, adding, “After reviewing all the information available to date on Doing Business, including the findings of past reviews, audits, and the report the Bank released today (September 16) on behalf of the Board of Executive Directors, World Bank Group management has taken the decision to discontinue the Doing Business report.”   

The statement further said that the World Bank Group remains firmly committed to advancing the role of the private sector in development and providing support to governments to design the regulatory environment that supports this.

“Going forward, we will be working on a new approach to assessing the business and investment climate. We are deeply grateful to the efforts of the many staff members who have worked diligently to advance the business climate agenda, and we look forward to harnessing their energies and abilities in new ways.”