IMF Loan to Russia

Your Nov. 14 editorial makes an unwarranted assertion about the International Monetary Fund’s programs in Russia by maintaining that “the IMF doesn’t even know how much of its money was stolen” there.

In fact, there is no evidence that any IMF assistance to Russia has been “stolen.” The fund carefully monitors the use of its loans by attaching detailed conditions to its assistance programs, and it is working to strengthen the safeguards even more. While an audit this year showed that Russia misrepresented the level of its foreign reserves in 1996, this did not involve any theft of loan money. Nonetheless, the incident did cause the IMF to tighten controls over current loans.

We could not agree more with your editorial’s call for the IMF to be able to pre-approve loans to countries that “meet strict criteria of open, disciplined economic governance.” Indeed, that exact type of loan program was set up earlier this year. The Contingent Credit Line is intended to ensure that countries that keep their economic house in order will not be blindsided by economic contagion from a crisis elsewhere in the world.

THOMAS C. DAWSON

Director, External Relations Dept.

IMF, Washington