US criticism for Romania in IMF meeting

The structural reform conducted by the Romanian authorities thus far was harshly criticised during International Monetary Fund’s Managing Board meeting two weeks ago.
Unofficial information shows Meg Lundsager, US representative in IMF’s Board to have said Romania should not get more than half of what was left of the stand-by credit ($151 million). The reason for this is the failure to comply with the performance criteria as pledged in the agreement signed in October 2001.
Lundsager explained the Romanian authorities had repeatedly missed the restructuring and privatisation targets set for the loss-making large state-owned companies.
The US position was backed by executive director Ian E. Bennett, who is also the Canadian representative in the Board.
The United States account for 17.11% of the total voting rights in the Board. The IMF representatives in Bucharest were supposed to provide the official version of the information at hand on Monday night.
“Of course there were arguments. All sorts of points of view come up during a meeting, but nobody abstained from the final vote, the voting was unanimous,” official sources told Ziarul Financiar.
The IMF directors on April 25 endorsed the release of an $76 million tranche and cumulating the last two tranches. “The IMF Board has noticed the structural reforms have unfortunately slowed down,” Finance minister Mihai Tanasescu said after the Board meeting.
He added Romania might draw only one of the two tranches left, “in case financing needs are lower than anticipated.” Romania’s reform conducted so far is worth $186 million out of the $413 million loan scheduled. razvan.voican@zf.ro