[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 21420]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



        TIME FOR ACCOUNTABILITY FOR INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND

  (Mr. ROYCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, in the last Congress, this body at the urging 
of the administration approved $18 billion in new payments to the 
International Monetary Fund. At that time, some of us called for 
reforms to this flawed institution, reforms that would have required 
real transparency and would have provided greater accountability for 
the IMF. But at that time, the administration's position was that it 
was not the time to institute reforms, that it was critical to send the 
money first, they said, reform it later.
  So that is what Congress did, not with my vote; but that is what 
Congress did. Congress sent a check for $18 billion, only to find out 
last month that billions of dollars in IMF loans to Russia, the fund's 
largest borrower over the last 7 years, likely was diverted and 
laundered through U.S. and other Western banks.
  The IMF states that they have no evidence that their money is 
involved and that they are investigating. Well, it is time that this 
Congress conducts its own investigation and holds the IMF accountable. 
Its largest donors, the U.S. taxpayers, deserve no less.

                          ____________________