August 30, 2000
New guidelines to be finalised this week will let the International Monetary Fund release long-confidential documents about its multimillion dollar lending programmes, but only if the borrower agrees.
Monetary sources said on Monday that the new proposals, part of long-standing efforts to increase transparency at the global lender, will for the first time let the fund release on a timely basis the reports underpinning its loans to countries and explaining what staff think of the progress to date.
The often-candid programme reports summarise staff advice to the IMF board, which makes the final decision on whether to lend. At present they form part of IMF archives and are made available only after a five-year delay.
"The summary will come out tomorrow, but the ideas are pretty clear," said one source, noting that the IMF board would also make it easier for counties to authorise release of the once-secret Article Four reports. The sources said other staff papers might also be released, with the permission of the board.
The IMF, long under fine for opaque operation and politically driven decision-making, three years ago took a key tentative step toward were transparency, allowing countries to release documents which summarised annual economic reviews by the IMF's board.
The project started in May 1994 and IMF officials hail it as a great success. By 1999, 145 countries allowed the IMF to publish the summaries, out of a total of 140 where the IMF conducted an annual economic review. Most of the holdouts were in Africa and the Middle East, along with loss in the former Soviet Union.
The release of these summary Press Information Notices was followed by a pilot project allowing the release of the complete the Article Four reports. The latest board decision hails the pilot as a success, paying the way for many more countries to release the full report.
"Everyone realises that there are both costs and benefits to transparency," said a second source. "You may have less candour to the discussion, and it's hard to know what to do about confidential information. But there are very good reasons for making information available about the situation in member countries.
More Information on the International Monetary Fund
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