§ Mr. RoweTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will take steps to encourage formal votes to be taken and the results published in(a) the IMF and (b) World bank.[57829]
§ Ms Hewitt[holding answer 11 November 1998]: In common with the Executive Boards of other International Financial Institutions (IFIs), the Executive Boards of the IMF and World bank aim to operate by consensus, and formal votes are rare. My right hon. Friends the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for International Development, as Governors of the IMF and World bank respectively, have no plans to encourage formal votes to be taken. However, they have called upon all IFIs to adopt a presumption in favour of release of information, except where this might compromise confidentiality.
In their statement of 30 October, G7 Executive Directors of the IMF called on the IMF to provide that full written summaries on a broader range of Executive Board meetings were made available to the public by issuing Public Information Notices following a discussion of: an IMF program or program review in which there is a Letter of Intent (LOI), Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or Policy Framework Paper (PFP); changes in general Fund policy; and Article IV consultations. They called for IMF policies to make provision for the timely release of LOIs, MOUs, or PFPs following Board consideration.