[stop-imf] U.S. Cong. ltr to IMF and WB on transparency

[Robert Weissman]

July 6, 2001



The Honorable Paul H. O’Neill
Secretary of the Treasury
Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC  20220

Dear Mr. Secretary:

Thank you for your offer to work with Members of Congress to promote
reform at the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the other
Multilateral Development Banks to make these institutions more open and
accountable to the public.  We urge you to support the following reforms
at the International Financial Institutions.

First, with respect to the Boards of Executive Directors of the IMF, the
World Bank and the other Multilateral Development Banks, the meetings of
these bodies should be open to the public and the media.  In addition,
immediately following these meetings, transcripts of the proceedings
should be disclosed to the public.  Major decisions, often impacting the
lives of hundreds of millions of the most vulnerable people on this
planet, as well as working people throughout the world, should not
continue to be made by these institutions behind closed doors.

 Second, with regard to the World Bank, we believe that the following
reforms are necessary to ensure that the Bank functions in a more
transparent and accountable manner.  The ongoing review of the Bank’s
Information Disclosure Policy is an excellent opportunity for the U.S.
Department of the Treasury to promote these reforms.

(a) All key documents should be available to the public prior to
consideration by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors.  We
applaud the decision by the World Bank’s Board to disclose Poverty
Reduction Strategy Papers (which are required from countries receiving
debt reduction) prior to Board consideration.  The Bank has stated that
this is necessary in order to be consistent with the participatory
principles of the Poverty Reduction Strategy process.  This logic should
be extended to other key documents, such as President’s Reports, Project
Appraisal Documents, Country Assistance Strategies, and documents
associated with Poverty Reduction Support Credits (the documents used by
the World Bank Board to assess lending and country assistance
strategies).  This is especially important for documents that are
specifically designed to support the implementation of Poverty Reduction
Strategies.

(b) Structural Adjustment and Sectoral Adjustment Lending documents
(which are used in the design of economic adjustment loans) should be
disclosed to the public.  Such documents include Letters of Development
Policy, President’s Reports and Tranche Release Memoranda.  The Bank is
currently proposing to adopt a presumption against disclosure of most of
these documents unless a borrowing government specifically
The Honorable Paul H. O’Neill
Page 2 of 2



requests their release.  That is clearly inconsistent with the guiding
principle of the World Bank’s existing Disclosure Policy, which calls
for a presumption in favor of disclosure.

(c) Draft Country Assistance Strategies (which outline the World Bank’s
business plans in borrowing countries), as well as all final versions of
Country Assistance Strategies, should be disclosed.  This is consistent
with the position of the G-7 industrialized countries, but it is not yet
World Bank policy.

(d) There should be a presumption in favor of disclosure of draft
Project Appraisal Documents (the documents used by the World Bank Board
to assess loans for projects).  People affected by a project should have
a voice in project design and implementation.  The existing policy, of
providing Project Appraisal Documents only after Board approval, denies
critical information to people affected by projects until after most
major decisions have already been made.

(e) Supervision Reports and Mid-Term Evaluations (documents that provide
information during project implementation) should be made public.  The
absence of information about a project’s status during the
implementation process prevents the public from monitoring the project,
participating in its implementation, and assisting with corrective
actions that could ensure project success.

(f) The above documents, along with Environmental Impact Assessments,
should be translated into the national language of the borrowing country
upon demand, and in a timely way.  In many countries, the practice of
limiting information disclosure to English-only documents is effectively
the same as withholding information.

 Third, with regard to the IMF, we recognize recent efforts to enhance
transparency.  At the same time, we would like to see even greater
progress, including the following reforms:

(a) The Letter of Intent for non-emergency loans (a document which
outlines agreements reached during loan negotiations) should be
disclosed prior to consideration by the Board of Executive Directors of
the IMF.  This is a logical extension of the recent decision to release
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers prior to Board consideration.

(b) There should be a presumption in favor of disclosure of Use of Fund
Resource documents (IMF documents outlining the terms of loans).

(c) Key documents, especially IMF loan Reviews, Poverty Reduction Growth
Facility  Arrangements, and Stand-by Arrangements (documents required
for IMF loans) should be disclosed to the public.

(d) Policy Papers and all evaluation documents should be made available
when they are initially circulated to the IMF Executive Board, so that
the Board has the opportunity to consider direct input from affected
individuals and groups.
The Honorable Paul H. O’Neill
Page 3 of 3



 Again, we appreciate your willingness to work with us to ensure that
reforms are made at the International Financial Institutions, and we
look forward to meeting with you to discuss these ideas.

Sincerely,



  ____________________    ____________________
Bernard Sanders     John J. LaFalce
Member of Congress     Member of Congress



  ____________________    ____________________
Walter B. Jones     Christopher Shays
Member of Congress     Member of Congress



  ____________________    ____________________
Paul E. Kanjorski     Maxine Waters
Member of Congress     Member of Congress



  ____________________    ____________________
Luis V. Gutierrez     Julia Carson
Member of Congress     Member of Congress



  ____________________    ____________________
Brad Sherman      Gregory W. Meeks
  Member of Congress     Member of Congress



  ____________________    ____________________
Barbara Lee      Stephanie Tubbs Jones
  Member of Congress     Member of Congress



The Honorable Paul H. O’Neill
Page 4 of 4




 ____________________    ____________________
Wm. Lacy Clay     Dennis J. Kucinich
Member of Congress     Member of Congress



  ____________________    ____________________
Marcy Kaptur      John Conyers, Jr.
Member of Congress     Member of Congress



  ____________________    ____________________
Neil Abercrombie     Cynthia A. McKinney
Member of Congress     Member of Congress



  ____________________    ____________________
Collin C. Peterson     George Miller    Member of Congress     Member of
Congress



  ____________________    ____________________
Peter A. DeFazio     Danny K. Davis
Member of Congress     Member of Congress



  ____________________    ____________________
Lane Evans      Tim Roemer
  Member of Congress     Member of Congress



  ____________________
Tammy Baldwin
  Member of Congress