FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

We welcome the announcement today that the IMF's Executive Board has agreed to establish an independent evaluation office.

We look forward to early action by the Fund to put this office in place as quickly as possible. We hope the Fund will move ahead immediately to design appropriate terms of reference, structure and other operating procedures for this office that will achieve the goals of independence, transparency and external consultation. The office will serve as an important complement to existing internal and external evaluation processes.

The establishment of an independent evaluation office demonstrates important progress in making the IMF a more accountable and transparent institution - and follows recent actions to require borrowers to publish external audits of central bank financial statements, strengthen overall safeguards of Fund resources and make public the IMF's financial transactions plan (formerly known as the "operational budget")

More remains to be done to press ahead on IMF reform, and we look forward to discussing these and other issues at the meeting of the IMF's International Monetary and Financial Committee this weekend.