By Toby McIntosh
A bright new web page, Transparency at the IMF, now adorns the website of the International Monetary Fund, but it lacks one key bit of information.
Topped with a row of six colorful stylized eyes, the IMF page extolls the IMF’s commitment to transparency. Magnifying glasses illustrate six categories of transparency, such as “How does the IMF ensure transparency?”
What’s missing, even after using a magnifying glass, is any mention of the IMF’s policy on access to information, its “Transparency Policy.”
Nor does the transparency page provide instructions on how or where to request IMF documents, but then, neither did the old page, because the IMF transparency policy has no such mechanism.
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IMF Misquotes Its Own Policy
The IMF transparency page even misquotes from the missing transparency policy.
The new web page states, “Publication of policy advice reports about countries that are prepared for consideration by the IMF Executive Board is typically ‘voluntary but presumed,’ meaning the IMF encourages their publication but does not require it.”
The phrase “voluntary but assumed” isn’t attributed. (Clicking on the two dozen links scattered throughout the IMF transparency page never gets to the transparency policy.)
Such a transparency policy does exist. (More about EYE’s hunt for it below.)
The actual language in the policy isn’t “voluntary but assumed.” It’s “voluntary but presumed.”
It’s interesting that the IMF page extolls this clause, because its existence is controversial. Critics have long said that the IMF’s extensive reports on countries all should be made public. The “voluntary but presumed” language was a nod toward disclosure adopted in 2010 amendments to the policy. But the transparency policy still gives countries a veto over disclosure and the right to make certain deletions.
The new IMF transparency page alludes to the disclosure gap created by this provision, stating that “95% of members published the IMF country report.” Which means that nine or 10 countries do not allow publication, the same number that existed 12 years ago.
The veto provision will not doubt draw attention again when the IMF reviews its transparency policy.
Yes, despite not mentioning the transparency policy on the new web page, the IMF has indicated plans to review the policy in 2024. (See previous EYE article.)
Text of Policy Hard to Find
Finding the text of the transparency policy proved to be difficult even before the appearance this week of the new transparency web page.
The previous “Transparency at the IMF” web page did at least allude to the transparency policy. It gave 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.”
However, the official language of the transparency policy was not anywhere to be seen on the “old” page. EYE’s repeatedly asked the IMF for such a link, to no avail.
EYE’s hunt several months ago 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.
Those changes were referenced in a July 13, 2022, IMF Policy Paper that describes a “targeted modification” that would keep confidential some of the IMF’s assessments of debt risks in countries. This change was discussed in a July 2022 article in Eyeonglobaltransparency.net.
Finding the 2022 changes is a little complicated, too. They are discussed 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.
EYE has again requested a link to the text of transparency policy.
P.S. The nice eye image for today’s post is from the IMF page.
