Tanzania: Irregularities in 'Ease of Doing Business' Reports Prompt World Bank Action

By Louis Kolumbia

Dar es Salaam — The World Bank (WB) has paused the Ease of Doing Business Reports for 2018 and 2020 published in October 2017 and 2019 respectively due to irregularities and alteration made on data.

A WB statement issued on Thursday, August 27 says the changes in data were inconsistent with the doing business methodology.

Sections of the 2020 DB report have gone viral on social media in Tanzania, prompting huge debates, with some subscribers and users questioning how the country was ranked alongside Zimbabwe with 54.5 scores each.

The World Bank says the decision to recall the reports has been taken to allow for a systematic review and assessment of changes of data that occurred following an institutional data review process for the last five Doing Business reports.

"We have asked the WB's independent internal audit function to perform an audit of the processes for data collection and review for doing business and controls to safeguard data integrity," reads the WB statement in part.

The bank has promised to act accordingly, based on the findings and retrospectively correct the data of mostly affected countries with irregularities.

"The board of executive directors of the WB has been briefed on the situation as have the authorities of countries mostly affected by data irregularities," says the statement.

According to the statement, publication of the Doing Business report will be paused as the assessment was conducted.

Detailed reports from the bank say the WB's decision came after data from Azerbaijan, China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were found to have been inappropriately altered in the 2018 and 2020 reports.

The manipulations were unveiled two months before publication of the Doing Business 2021 report.

According to the DB2020 report, Tanzania had climbed by two positions to the 141st position as compared to 144th reported in the DB2019 report.

The new report shows that Zimbabwe has climbed by 15 positions to 140 as compared to the 155 rankings reported in the DB2019 report.

However, the paused DB2020 report shows that Tanzania was ranked 67th position in getting credit by 65 scores; 71st position after collecting 61.7 points in the contracts enforcements and 85th position in electricity connectivity after accumulating 74.9 points.

Other areas, positions held and scores in brackets are; protecting minority investors (105/50); resolving insolvency (116/39.1) and property registrations (146/50.1).

The process of getting construction permits (149/57.9); starting a new business (162/74.4); tax payments (165/51.3) and trade across the country borders (182/20.2).

According to DB2020 report, Rwanda topples the East African Community (EAC) member states after holding 38 positions from 76.5 scores.

The other countries with positions and scores are; Kenya (56/73.2); Uganda (116/60); Burundi (166/46.8) and South Sudan (185).