“The IMF recognises the importance of transparency in its documents,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “But it fails to give proper effect to this in its policy; the new policy needs to establish a proper presumption of disclosure with a full regime for making requests for information.”
The current IMF Transparency Policy is essentially a list of the documents that the IMF is committed to releasing proactively. Even for this list, the Policy grants extensive veto powers to States regarding information which relates to them. The Policy does not provide for any system for making requests for the vast majority of the information it holds. It also lacks other key elements of a proper presumption of disclosure system, such as a limited, harm-based system of exceptions and a right of appeal to an independent oversight body.
