Camdessus calls for council to govern IMF

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

IMF chief urges establishment of an IMF Council
Date: Wed Jun 02 22:40:12 CDT 1999

   MONTREAL, June 2 (AFP) - International Monetary Fund chief Michel
Camdessus called Wednesday for the creation of a ministerial-level council
as the top decision-making body in the financial institution.
   Speaking here at the fifth Montreal conference on globalization,
Camdessus urged an end to the "institutional anomaly" of government
ministers providing advice to the IMF directors they appoint to take
decisions.
   The current system of an Interim Committee has subsisted since the 1970s,
Camdessus said, because a consensus did not exist to advance to a formal
decision-making body.
   At a time when the IMF is trying to "cover deficiencies in world
architecture," Camdessus said, "the establishment of the Council, in my
judgement, is an idea whose time has come."
   A ministerial-level council, the IMF Chief added, "would demonstrate
that, in the system that is emerging, where the IMF will find itself center
stage ... governments take full  responsibility for its strategies.
   "In this increasingly democratic era," he went on to say, "citizens of
countries around the world could then understand better how the IMF is run."
   Camdessus cautioned, however, that the IMF was far from consensus on the
need for a council and that the issue would be "kept very actively on the
agenda in the coming months."