It’s been a few weeks of headlines about questionable practices by so-called trusted auditors, advisors and global institutions. Where does this leave the companies that depend on them? The World Bank’s annual Doing Business report isn’t exactly casual bedtime reading, but its rankings and ratings matter to global companies trying to figure out where to invest or set up a business. They’re also a reputational calling card for countries to attract foreign direct investment. Now, it turns out that some people at the Bank were fudging the numbers in the last couple editions to make a few countries, most notably China, look good. The results of an independent investigation, that the Neue Zürcher Zeitung called a diplomatic thriller, shows that the highest levels of the Bank were driven by ideological and financial factors that ultimately led the Bank to announce it will discontinue the report that’s been published every year since 2003. What does this have to do with Switzerland?
