Get IMF, WB visits cleared, says Centre

PATNA: The Union finance ministry has strongly objected to the visits of official delegations to the World Bank headquarters without consulting either the country’s department of economic affairs (DEA) or the office of the country’s executive director (ED) in the World Bank.
The Union finance ministry, in a recent communique sent to all the central and state government departments, has asked them to plan visits of delegations from central ministries, central ministers and chief ministers to the World Bank or IMF only after seeking clearance from it.
Pointing out that VIP interactions had to be at appropriate level, the Union finance ministry said it had come to its notice that sometimes meetings were fixed at relatively junior level without the knowledge of either the DEA or the office of the country’s ED in World Bank, who, incidentally, is also the country’s principal resident representative (PRR) in the bank, enjoying the rank of an ambassador.
It had caused avoidable embarrassment, the circular said, adding that as per the Centre’s Rules of Executive Business, the DEA was the nodal department for all interactions with the bank. “It is necessary to ensure that all interactions with the World Bank are conducted within the borrowing and policy framework agreed between the DEA and World Bank with a view to maintaining consistency in the central government’s overall relations with the bank,� the finance ministry circular said. According to it, it is also necessary that the DEA is consulted on issues which visiting delegations intended to take up with the bank.
Requests for meeting with any authority of the World Bank/IMF should be made to the ED’s office with intimation to the Fund Bank division of the DEA along with the purpose of the meetings and possible agenda, the finance ministry circular said. The ED’s office would apprise the ministry of economic affairs of their views on the matter, and only after clearance from the latter would the former intimate the central ministries or state governments concerned about the meeting, it added. The meetings would be arranged in the office of the ED and the latter would send a report on the meeting to the DEA.
The circular explained that if any request was made to the Indian embassy then the embassy
would inform the ED’s office for necessary action under intimation to the DEA. The meetings
should not be fixed through the local office of the World Bank or with World Bank, it insisted.