By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/imf1freeze021810.html
UNITED NATIONS, February 18, updated -- The IMF board will vote tomorrow on Zimbabwe's request to regain voting rights, the IMF's David Hawley said at the organization's biweekly media briefing on February 18.
While not taking any online questions, Hawley fielded repeated questions about Greece, essentially backing away from Dominique Strauss-Kahn's previous blustered about the IMF being ready to intervene. Pundits says the Europeans want to keep the IMF out -- Germany because it wants to retain the centrality of a European process it is about to head, France's Sarkozy because he does not want Strauss-Kahn to become any more prominent before the 2012 elections.
While Strauss-Kahn's IMF preaches to developing and troubled countries, it cannot comply with its commitment to conduct an online media briefing every two weeks. On February 18, the IMF's David Hawley presided over an ill-attended session in the organization's new briefing room.
His colleague Caroline Atkinson had inaugurated the room by saying it should make online participation easier and more seamless. But on February 18, despite online questions being submitted by Inner City Press and surely others, Mr. Hawley did not acknowledge or answer a single online question. Nor in the twenty minutes between the briefing and the expiration of the IMF's embargo did the IMF answer a request for an explanation of the freeze-out.
Here were the three questions Inner City Press submitted:
On Pakistan, does the IMF's recent announcement mean that the bank supervision and power tariff goals have been met?
Regarding Cote d'Ivoire, how does the IMF view the suspension of the government and further delay of elections by Laurent Gbagbo?
With an IMF team in Sri Lanka, what is the IMF's thinking on the EU's suspension of the GSP Plus tariff treatment, and/or the arrest of opposition politician Sarath Fonseka?
On other matters, Hawley said he would not speculate or comment about the motivations of Central Banks. Fine -- but why can't the IMF, despite the spending on its new briefing room, manage to acknowledge and answer online questions about its operations? Watch this site.
Footnote: While the IMF took some online questions on February 4, after Ms. Atkinson said the IMF would provide an answer about Yemen, none has been provided in the fortnight since...
Update: after publication at embargo time of the report above, the IMF indirectly justified its refusal to even acknowledge the three online questions above:
Subject: Re: Three online questions ignored at 930 "online" briefing, please explain and answer, thanks
From: Murray, William
Date: Thu, Feb 18, 2010
To: Inner City Press, "Atkinson, Caroline, Hawley, David
Matthew,
I have asked the press officers to review your questions and get back to you where possible. Most of the questions contained stuff that fell far afield of the IMF's role or mandate. So where we can answer we will, but a big chunk of your questions could be better answered by institutions not focused on financial and macroeconomic issues.
Well, no. As linked to in the questions above, the IMF has a team in Sri Lanka, has opined on power tariffs and bank supervision in Pakistan -- in fact, Inner City Press got answers on those questions on a previous IMF conference call -- and is reviewing Cote d'Ivoire.
The IMF's attempt to portray itself as divorced from politics, conditionality, and governance is ham-handed and illegitimate. It is not for the IMF to decide which questions to acknowledge or not. Or, who in the IMF makes these decisions, and on what basis? Watch this site.
Update -- after the IMF's embargo expired, and after the above was published, responses came in to two of the three above questions, which the IMF had tried to argue somehow where not relevant:
Mr. Lee: The following statement can be attributed to Adnan Mazarei, mission chief for Pakistan:
The reforms to strengthen the effectiveness of banking supervision in Pakistan are proceeding as envisaged. The parliament is discussing amendments to the banking law. The lower house has approved the amendments and they are being discussed by the upper house. Electricity reform is also proceeding, but somewhat slower than planned earlier due to delays in implementing certain tariff adjustments.
Kind Regards, Olga Stankova, Sr. Press Officer
and
Matthew, Further to your question on Côte d’Ivoire, I’m afraid it’s still too early to say. You can attribute the following to me if it’s helpful.
“The IMF, through its resident representative, continues to monitor the situation in Côte d’Ivoire. It is too early to assess any impact on the authorities’ IMF-supported economic program.”
Best regards, Alistair Thomson, Press Officer - External Relations Department
Apparently the question about Sri Lanka, where the IMF current has a team on the ground, was deemed even less IMF relevant that this. Watch this site.And see, www.innercitypress.com/imf1freeze021810.html
