Transcript

Transcript of a Statement by Caroline Atkinson on Board Discussion of Dominique Strauss-Kahn

May 16, 2011

Video of the statement

First of all, the IMF’s Executive Board met earlier this afternoon in an informal session to receive a verbal briefing from acting Managing Director John Lipsky and the Fund’s General Counsel Sean Hagen. This was on developments relating to the Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The Board was briefed regarding criminal charges that had been brought against the Managing Director during a private visit to New York. The IMF staff and its Executive Board will continue to monitor developments. There was no board action. This was a briefing.

I also wanted to let you know that, earlier in the day, Mr. Lipsky called together the staff at a town hall meeting. Let me briefly recap what he said. While this is a very difficult time, Mr. Lipsky pointed to the experience, depth, and commitment of IMF staff to meet the challenges that our 187 member countries face in this post-crisis world. Mr. Lipsky underscored that the IMF is continuing its business uninterrupted and that experience, depth, and commitment of the staff and the ability to work together with our member countries is what will make that possible.

He pointed to a couple of examples already today. Deputy Managing Director Nemat (Minouche) Shafik attended a critical meeting of the Eurogroup in Brussels along with senior staff that was dealing with the crisis in the Eurozone; the first item on the IMF’s Executive Board’s agenda was to move forward with the next phase of an important loan to Ireland, one of our major borrowers at the moment.

And more generally around the world, in different countries and continents, our staff is on the ground working with the economic problems of our member countries, while staff here in Washington are continuing their work, and we are fully operational.