SJC welcomes IMF report with options for reforming World Bank and IMF leadership

Montreal - 12 July 2007 - A new IMF report calling for transparency in how its leaders and top management are chosen is a positive contribution to challenging the privilege now enjoyed by the US and European Union.

The report concludes that “the time may have come to systematize and increase transparency in the process” for appointing top staff, and reviews options for ensuring diverse geographic representation.

“This report identifies how out of step these institutions are with best practice in public appointments and corporate governance,” said SJC Director Derek MacCuish. “The current practice reflects a problem endemic in these institutions - the reluctance to empower the countries and people their policies are supposed to benefit. Why have the governors of the institutions, including the Canadian Finance Minister, allowed this unequal power dynamic to persist for more than 60 years?”

The Background Paper, entitled “The Process for Selecting and Appointing the Managing Director and First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF,” was issued July 11 by the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office.

The SJC welcomes the report’s recognition that previous reform efforts were ineffective (“concern to maintain the long-standing nationality convention explains the reluctance of the European countries or the US to put the proposals into practice”) and its suggestions for “alternative ways of securing wide geographical representation among the leadership of the Fund and Bank.”

Contact: Derek MacCuish
Tel: 514-933-6797
Email: dmaccuish@socialjusticecommittee.org