By Toby McIntosh
The International Monetary Fund may review its Transparency Policy in 2024, a process likely to rekindle long-standing criticisms that the Bank discourages requests and limits disclosure.
The possible review is mentioned in The Managing Director’s Update on the FY 2023 Work Program of the Executive Board, dated Dec. 19, 2022. Reviews of the Transparency Policy, and the Communications Policy, are among the “preliminary priorities” for 2024, “to be discussed in more detail in Spring 2023.”
The IMF’s disclosure policy has long been controversial. Unlike other international financial institutions (IFIs), the Fund provides no mechanism for the public to make requests for current documents or to appeal denials.
And although the Fund policy says it “will strive to disclose documents and information on a timely basis unless strong and specific reasons argue against such disclosure,” there are many roadblocks to disclosure. Countries retain considerable authority over what information will and won’t be released.
Text of Policy Hard to Find
Even finding the full text of the Transparency Policy is difficult.
The IMF’s Transparency Policy page provides no instructions on how or where to request IMF documents and doesn’t link to the full text of the policy.”
Instead, the “Transparency at the IMF” web page gives prominence to an Updated Guidance Note on the Fund’s Transparency Policy, dated April 8, 2014. The detailed Guidance Note instructs the IMF staff “on the implementation of the Fund’s Transparency Policy.
It took some searching to find what appears to be the official language of the policy.
EYE’s hunt led to a 2020 document prepared by the IMF Legal Department, that appears to be the Transparency Policy as adopted on June 13, 2013, Decision No. 15420-(13/61), plus amendments made four times since, in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2020.
The 2020 document doesn’t incorporate changes made in 2022.
Alterations Increased Confidentiality
A July 13, 2022, IMF Policy Paper describes a “targeted modification” that would keep confidential some of the IMF’s assessments of debt risks in countries. This change was described in a July 2022 article in Eyeonglobaltransparency.net.
Finding the 2022 changes is a little complicated, too. They are described in a document sent to the Board in June 2022 that includes the line-by-line modifications necessary to adjust the Transparency Policy. The June document is referenced in Footnote 124 of another IMF document – lengthy staff guidance, dated Aug. 8, 2022.
Archives Policy Not Up for Review
Older IMF documents can be requested from the IMF Archives under a separate policy, which apparently is not going to be for re-examined.
The 2009 Archives Policy, as amended three times, is described on the IMF Archives web page and in a Legal Department document.
The Archives Policy begins, “Outside persons, on request, will be given access under the terms specified in this Decision to documentary materials maintained in the Fund’s archives.”
The site says inquires can be sent to archives@imf.org “and we will respond within 5 working days.”
Under the policy, Executive Board documents, are available to the public under 3- and 5-year rules except for items exempted from public disclosure. The Archives Policy was first adopted in 1996. See the IMF’s History of the Archives Policy since 1996.
Past Policy Changes Have Been Minimal
The IMF has conducted several reviews of its transparency policies before, usually making only slight changes.
The few changes made in 2013 were disappointing to critics. (See FreedomInfo.org article.) The Fund slightly increased pressure on countries to agree to some disclosures. Civil society groups said at the time that the IMF’s disclosure policies were the worst among all the IFIs, pointing out that the IMF lacked clear procedures for making requests. (See Freedominfo.org article.) The consultation process was also criticized. (See Freedominfo.org article.)
In 2010, after an opaque review process, the IMF announced modest changes to its disclosure policy, but retained the rules allowing governments to prevent release of documents pertaining to their countries. (See Freedominfo.org article.)
To read other Freedominfo.org articles on IMF transparency, dating back to 2003, look at the IMF category under IFTI Watch. Freedominfo.org stopped publishing in 2017.
