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Press ReleasesHigh-Level Panel on IMF Board Accountability will meet in Washington, DC Sept 7-8
High-Level Panel on IMF Board Accountability will meet in Washington, DC Sept 7-8
Press Release
September 7, 2006
A newly formed High-Level Panel on the International Monetary Fund’s Board Accountability will meet in Washington, DC, for the first time Thursday, September 7 and Friday, September 8, 2006. Organized by the New Rules for Global Finance Coalition, the Panel will examine the current Executive Board’s mode of operating and compare it with the Board’s obligations as laid out in the Fund’s Articles of Agreement.
Panel Members serve in their personal capacity. They were selected from many different backgrounds such as former Executive Directors and Senior Management of the Fund, developing country and emerging market country civil servants and diplomats, non-governmental organizational representatives, and senior academics. They come from a broad range of countries including: South Africa, Nigeria, Krygyz Republic, Indonesia, Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They share in-depth knowledge of the IMF and a commitment to accountability.
The Panel will focus on the Executive Board itself, its responsibilities as laid out in the Articles of Agreement, and the mechanisms the Articles set up for ensuring the accountability of the Executive Board. Over the next year they will develop recommendations for enhancing the IMF Executive Board’s accountability. An interim statement is expected at the conclusion of their first meeting.
The Panel is meeting at a time of great change at the IMF. Next week in Singapore at the joint Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank, the IMF Governors will consider changes in the governance of the Fund. At the same time non-governmental organizations will hold demonstrations and teach-ins calling for still further changes.
The Executive Board is a comprised of 24 full time Executive Directors. They represent the 184 member countries of the IMF. The Articles of Agreement are the Fund’s constitution and were approved in 1944.
The New Rules for Global Finance Coalition is a non-profit organization whose members come from non-governmental organizations and the academy, and who are dedicated to promoting financial policies that promote greater stability, equity and environmental sustainability.
This project is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation.
Contact information: Jo Marie Griesgraber, Ph.D., Executive Director, New Rules for Global Finance Coalition 1-202-277-9390