A Checklist of IMF Reforms

Elimination of tax credit for IMF employees. The average IMF professional staffer makes $94,341 and receives generous benefits and perquisites (including living allowance and free education for their children at private schools and universities). Moreover, the IMF also reimburses its employees for all taxes levied by their home country on their salaries. As noted by the Wall Street Journal, "If only IMF policy shapers had some of their own pocket change at risk, they just might prove a tad more cautious about pushing for things like higher taxes and bailouts."8 One bill before Congress (H.R. 3785) by Congressman Ed Royce (R-CA) would require the IMF to end this program.

A requirement to end successive IMF bailouts. Most countries being financially bailed out are not new to the IMF program - most have been bailed out before. Mexico, for example, has been bailed out four times since the mid-1970s. IMF bailouts seldom seem to discourage recipients from getting back in line for aid again, once the current bailout is finished. As such, the U.S. Congress should insist that the IMF alter its policies and condition for receiving its aid. Instead of an endless and perpetual supply of subsidized loans, the IMF should restrict all borrowers to a one-time loan program. Thus, if countries are seeking a financial bailout from the IMF, one condition for the bailout should be that the recipient country can no longer qualify for any additional aid in the future.

Seek a General Accounting Office audit of IMF lending practices. While the GAO has performed intensive audits on domestic programs, such as the U.S. foreign aid program, it rarely does so of international agencies. Such studies have proven invaluable in and measuring effectiveness of specific programs and identifying instances of fraud, waste, and abuse in the past. Congress should utilize the expertise of the GAO to launch a new audit of the IMF that focuses specifically on the economic performance of IMF recipients; the effectiveness and efficiency of IMF program in meeting the organization's stated goals; the effectiveness of the IMF in getting recipient countries to adopt specific economic policies; and the IMF's financial records. Congress should demand that the IMF open its records and financial statements to GAO audits.

Require that the U.S. State Department report to Congress on

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