2. Under the procedures adopted by Decision No. 12424-(01/13), the Fund will be prepared to meet a request to cooperate with investigating agencies of members for the preparation of reports on the Fund and its activities, provided that the request is channeled through an Executive Director's office and includes (i) a precise description of the terms of reference of the enquiry; and (ii) written assurances that: confidential information provided in the course of the enquiry will not be disclosed; management and staff will be given an opportunity to review any report resulting from the enquiry before its circulation outside the agency to ascertain that no confidential information is being disclosed in the report and that the factual information is correct; and the views of management and staff will be included in the report in an acceptable manner.

B. Experience

3. Since the adoption of the new procedures, there have been four such investigations, all undertaken by the United States General Accounting Office (GAO): (1) Cambodia: Governance Reform Progressing, But Key Efforts Are Lagging (EBD/01/105); (2) IMF Reform Efforts to Anticipate Financial Crises (EBD/02/127 ); (3) Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria (EBD/03/2); (4) Food Crisis in Southern Africa (EBD/03/5). In each case the request was channeled through the Executive Director's Office, contained precise terms of reference, and the necessary written assurances were given.

4. In accordance with the procedures, staff provided comments on the Cambodia report and the Anticipating Financial Crises report, and the published GAO reports included the formal responses by the Fund. Any issues of confidentiality in the draft reports were resolved satisfactorily. Since the Global Fund and the Food Crisis reports included only minor and peripheral references to the Fund or to Fund policy, staff provided a few informal comments but there was no formal response by the Fund.

5. While the latter two reports required only limited staff time, both the Cambodia report and the Anticipating Financial Crises report required significant staff resources in some departments for the preparation and provision of the requested data, numerous meetings with visiting GAO teams, and review of the draft reports for factual errors or disclosure of confidential information. It is estimated that the Anticipating Financial Crises report absorbed a total of more than 200 hours; the Cambodia report required a smaller staff effort.

C. Conclusions

6. The procedures adopted by the Board appear to be working well. The resource costs have so far been managed, although there may be budgetary implications if there are numerous further requests for cooperation on investigations requiring as much staff involvement as the Anticipating Financial Crises report. This issue will be reevaluated in the context of a proposed further review of the procedures in three years. In the meantime, however, it is proposed that the review of procedures required by Decision No. 12424-(01/13) be completed without changes.

Proposed Decision

The following draft decision, which may be adopted by a majority of the votes cast, is proposed for adoption by the Executive Board:

The Executive Board has reviewed the procedures on cooperation with investigations on Fund activities by auditing institutions of members contained in Decision No. 12424-(01/13), adopted February 5, 2001. The procedures shall be reviewed again before January 31, 2007.