Amid BRICSA Move on
IMF Top Job, UN Pause on Ban Ki-moon?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 24 -- While France brags that China supports its finance
minister Christine Lagarde to replace Dominique Strauss Kahn atop the
International Monetary Fund, the five BRICSA countries on Tuesday
said that Europe is not assured of maintaining the top spot at the
IMF.
The
statement by
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa pointed at previous
commitments that the post would move this time beyond Europe.
It did
not mentioned that Ms. Lagarde faces a June 10 decision on a
corruption probe of her role in directing a $400 million settlement
to Sarkozy ally Bernard Tapie for actions of state owned Credit
Lyonnais.
Even
if as
expected Ms. Lagarde announces for the IMF top job on May 25, since
the IMF is open for nominations through June 10, and for decision
until June 30, the story remains open.
At
the UN, this
casts
or should cast a shadow on Ban Ki-moon's drive for a second
term as Secretary General. In a recent interview with Agence France
Presse, whose chief came to visit him, Ban said that if member states
want him he will make himself available.
Sources
in the
Security Council, where Ban need a resolution, tell Inner City Press
that it would have
been unseemly for Permanent Member France to have initiated the
re-elections process. So the expectation has been that Gabon, the
Council President in June, will be asked to make the move.
But
this should be
put off, the sources say. If an Asian, especially an official from
China, gets top IMF post, that changes the calculus for the UN
Secretary General post. At a minimum, action at the UN would have to
wait until July.
Ban with Zoellick &
DSK: Lipsky & musical chairs not shown
Here is
the BRICSA
statement:
Statement
by
the IMF Executive Directors Representing Brazil, Russia, India,
China and South Africa on the Selection Process for Appointing an IMF
Managing Director
Press
Release
No. 11/195
May
24,
2011
We,
as
Executive Directors representing Brazil, Russia, India, China and
South Africa in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have the
following common understanding concerning the selection of the next
Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund:
1)
The
convention that the selection of the Managing Director is made,
in practice, on the basis of nationality undermines the legitimacy of
the Fund.
2)
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.
3)
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.
4)
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”.
5)
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.
6)
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.
Aleksei
Mozhin,
Executive Director (Russia)
Arvind
Virmani,
Executive Director (India)
Jianxiong
He,
Executive Director (China)
Moeketsi
Majoro,
Executive Director representing South Africa
Paulo
Nogueira
Batista Jr., Executive Director (Brazil)
* * *
, 
