Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - IMF says, despite Bush assertion, it has no evidence that Russian diverted aid

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Friday, October 13, 2000

IMF says, despite Bush assertion, it has no evidence that Russian diverted aid

Associated Press
The International Monetary Fund said Thursday it had no evidence to support an allegation by Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush that former Russian Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin diverted IMF loans to his own use.
   In an exchange about the IMF and the World Bank during the second presidential debate Wednesday night, Bush said there had been a "lot of egregious examples recently" of foreign aid being misused.
   "We went into Russia, we said here's some IMF money. It ended up in Victor Chernomyrdin's pocket and others. And yet we played like there was reform," Bush said.
   IMF spokesman Thomas Dawson said the agency had no evidence that Chernomyrdin had diverted any IMF loans to his own use. But Dawson said the agency would be ready to look into any allegations anyone cared to bring forward.
   Dawson noted that the IMF already had moved in response to allegations about improper accounting of IMF loans to institute new policies including the requirement that Russia and other nations have their books checked by independent auditors in return for IMF support.
   "We don't dismiss these issues and when we do hear these allegations, which come up fairly regularly, we take them quite seriously," Dawson told reporters at an IMF press briefing.
   Dawson said the IMF planned to send a team to Moscow on Nov. 7 to continue talks on restarting an IMF loan program that was suspended in 1998 when Russia's economy collapsed during the Asian financial crisis.
   Russia owes the IMF about $12 billion for past loans.

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