A Checklist of IMF Reforms

require voting parties to simply verbally vote in favor or against the issue at hand. A recorded vote, however, makes public record of how all the voting parties voted. This is particularly important for an organization like the IMF which approves billions of dollars worth of loans to its members each year. In the past, the U.S. Congress has passed legislation that requires the U.S. Executive Director to the IMF to use the "voice and vote" of the U.S. to alter the way decisions are approved. However, as U.S. Executive Director Karin Lissakers recently testified before Congress, in the past three years, the IMF has considered over 2,000 resolutions. Of those, there were only recorded votes on about a dozen.3

3. All IMF documents (including meeting minutes, financial statements, loan conditions, economic evaluations of IMF member countries) must be made available to the public.

The IMF refuses to release the vast majority of its information on economic policies, past performance, and internal meetings to the press, public, or Congress. Although this lack of public transparency is very disturbing, the Fund's refusal to grant Congressional offices free access to its records is totally unacceptable. Essentially the IMF is demanding that countries contribute billions of dollars to its coffers while denying them the information necessary to conduct an informed debate on the necessity and benefits of those contributions. For example, reports charging that the IMF exacerbated the crisis in Indonesia were leaked to the press in January. When the U.S. Congress requested to these reports in order to consider the President's request to increase funding, they were denied. Eventually, the U.S. Treasury Department agreed to release the reports, but only to the Joint Economic Committee, and not the entire Congress. This secrecy is unacceptable. No U.S. funds should be appropriated to the IMF until these and all of the information necessary to conduct an open and informed debate on the IMF, including allowing independent auditors to assess IMF finances and evaluate IMF loans, are made public.

4. Require the U.S. Executive Director of the IMF testify before Congress on a biannual basis.

The IMF loans vast amounts of U.S. taxpayer dollars to a majority of the world's countries. The conditions attached to these loans have significant influence on investment flows to and economic and social policies in recipient countries. Congress has an obligation to determine if these loans are having a beneficial or

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