Σάββατο 22 Οκτωβρίου 2016

New York Times: Internal strife in the IMF for the Greek program

New York Times: Internal strife in the IMF for the Greek program

Refusal to supply documents, internal conflicts and intimidation by members of the European department of the International Monetary Fund, are disclosed, inter alia, the report of the Independent Evaluation Office in handling the European crisis brought to light by the New York Times.

In summer, the Independent Evaluation Office of the Fund, an independent group whose aim is to assess all aspects of behavior and IMF policies, issued a report 86 pages on the IMF's performance during the European debt crisis.

The report contained unusually 'raw' criticism of how he handled the debt problems of Greece the Fund.

According to the IMF staff report, members intimidated by their partners in the European Department, did not see the early signs of problems and did not do enough to push that for debt restructuring.

Before the publication of the report in the summer, officials of the Fund demanded the Independent Evaluation Office to reduce and in some cases to remove pieces of the report indicated that the IMF does not give evaluators the documents sought.

Since 2012, when the Office has notified for the first time its intention to examine the activities of the IMF in the eurozone, faced reactions, not only from the IMF staff, but also by Europeans who were members of the Fund Board, according to the New York Times.

Managers of France and Germany did not want to do research, sometimes using strong language in meetings with officials of the Office, in an effort to force them to abandon the project, although publicly supported the mission of the Office.
When it became clear that the Office would proceed with the investigation, the general managers asked if possible to avoid public exposure, according to people involved in the process.

The opposition to the investigation was more noticeable in the strong European Division, which oversaw the rescues of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
The head of the European Department, Paul Thomsen, who was also the "architect" of the Greek rescue program, initially distanced itself from the researchers, the report turned out to be crucial for the Fund's operations in Greece, although the Thomsen is not mentioned by name in the report.

The Thomsen finally cooperated, giving thousands of emails and documents and agreeing to hold three-hour interview with a member of the Office prepared the report.

In a statement the head of the European Department said the department of "fully complied with the requests of the Independent Evaluation Office for information and documents, without exception."

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