A group of Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday there was no reason for the organisation to continue selecting an European national for the post. “We are concerned with public statements made recently by high-level European officials to the effect that the position of Managing Director should continue to be occupied by a European,” the Executive Directors representing Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa said in a statement.
The search for a successor to Dominic Strauss-Kahn who resigned after he was arrested on allegations that he tried to rape a hotel maid in New York has begun and the front-runner for the post so far is French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde while other countries across the world are also presenting candidates.
The group of Executive Directors said they have reached the following common understanding concerning the selection of the next Managing Director of the Fund:
- The convention that the selection of the Managing Director is made, in practice, on the basis of nationality undermines the legitimacy of the Fund.
- The recent financial crisis which erupted in developed countries, underscored the urgency of reforming international financial institutions so as to reflect the growing role of developing countries in the world economy.
- Accordingly, several international agreements have called for a truly transparent, merit-based and competitive process for the selection of the Managing Director of the IMF and other senior positions in the Bretton Woods institutions. This requires abandoning the obsolete unwritten convention that requires that the head of the IMF be necessarily from Europe. We are concerned with public statements made recently by high-level European officials to the effect that the position of Managing Director should continue to be occupied by a European.
- These statements contradict public announcements made in 2007, at the time of the selection of Mr. Strauss-Kahn, when Mr. Jean-Claude Junker, president of the Euro group, declared that “the next managing director will certainly not be a European” and that “in the Euro group and among EU finance ministers, everyone is aware that Strauss-Kahn will probably be the last European to become director of the IMF in the foreseeable future”.
- We believe that, if the Fund is to have credibility and legitimacy, its Managing Director should be selected after broad consultation with the membership. It should result in the most competent person being appointed as Managing Director, regardless of his or her nationality. We also believe that adequate representation of emerging market and developing members in the Fund’s management is critical to its legitimacy and effectiveness.
- The next Managing Director of the Fund should not only be a strongly qualified person, with solid technical background and political acumen, but also a person that is committed to continuing the process of change and reform of the institution so as to adapt it to the new realities of the world economy.
The statement was signed by Aleksei Mozhin, Executive Director (Russia), Arvind Virmani, Executive Director (India), Jianxiong He, Executive Director (China), Moeketsi Majoro, Executive Director representing South Africa and Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr, Executive Director (Brazil).
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| Dominic Strauss-Kahn |
Christine Lagarde |
Earlier the IMF Executive Board in a statement on May 20 said it was initiatiating the selection process for the next IMF Managing Director. In that, Dean of the Executive Board of the Fund, Shakour Shaalan, said an individual may be nominated for the position of Managing Director by a Fund Governor or an Executive Director during a nomination period which shall commence on May 23, 2011 and will close on June 10, 2011.
“The Executive Board will meet with the shortlisted candidates (or all of the candidates if there were fewer than four) in Washington, D.C. Thereafter, the Executive Board will meet to discuss the strengths of the candidates and make a selection. Although the Executive Board may select a Managing Director by a majority of the votes cast, the objective of the Executive Board is to select the Managing Director by consensus with the objective of completing the selection process by June 30, 2011,” he said. |
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