Press Release No. 02/10

Press Release: IMF Executive Board Reviews Tajikistan Misreporting, Remedial Steps

February 13, 2002

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reviewed today three noncomplying disbursements to Tajikistan totaling SDR 25.32 million (about US$31.63 million) under the second- and third-annual Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangements. The third annual PRGF arrangement expired on December 24, 2001. It was agreed that Tajikistan could repay the IMF in four quarterly tranches beginning June 30, 2002 and completing repayment no later than March 31, 2003.¹

Subsequent to the PRGF disbursements to Tajikistan in January 2000, April 2001, and July 2001, it became apparent that the information on external arrears of Tajikistan available to the Fund at the time of approval of the disbursements was incorrect. The authorities did not inform the staff of the arrears accumulated in connection with two government guarantees. The accumulation of these arrears violated a continuous performance criterion under the PRGF arrangements. As a result of these inaccuracies in information, the disbursements were deemed to be noncomplying.²

Following the Executive Board's discussion on Tajikistan, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chairman, Eduardo Aninat, stated:

"The authorities' failure to disclose information relating to a performance criterion under the PRGF arrangement is a serious matter. I am pleased that the authorities have committed to take definitive actions to address deficiencies in their debt management capacities. In particular, the Executive Board noted the authorities' intent to establish a detailed inventory of the stock and status of all outstanding public and publicly guaranteed external debt, in order to enhance their debt management capacity. Nonetheless, the Board concluded that waivers of nonobservance of the performance criterion could not be granted, because the problem of misreporting is neither minor nor temporary. Tajikistan has also been involved in previous incidents of misreporting (see News Brief No. 01/55). The Executive Board asked Tajikistan to make an early repayment of the noncomplying disbursements, together with any interest accrued thereon."