IMF: “Government must intervene after investigations”

02/09/2014 00:00

The International Monetary Fund has made a public statement about the
theft at the Bank of Albania. The IMF Chief, Nadeem Ilahi, said for Top
Channel that it is important for the authorities to wait for the result
of these investigations before intervening.

“This is a criminal case being investigated by the Prosecution. Albania has clear laws about these acts, and the procedures should be respected before judging who is to blame and who not. Same as the authorities, we are waiting for the results of these investigations and we hope that the correct measures will be taken. It is still early to take someone to blame”, the IMF Chief declared.

The theft scandal of more than 7 million USD by bank employees has caused anger among the public opinion, with many asking the Supervisory Council and especially the Governor to resign as direct responsible for allowing the theft.

“As for the question if the Bank leaders should resign, I still want to underline that the investigation is undergoing and it is still early to answer. There is also a law for the Bank of Albania that passed in Parliament, which is based on the independence of the Bank. But there are also legal instruments that guarantee a supervision from the Parliament. The goal here is that this law should be respected before making any decision”, Nadeem Ilahi said.

Does this mean that the IMF would not be happy if the Parliament intervened to reform the Supervisory Council or the Bank of Albania leadership?

“I reiterate once again that there is an existing law for the Bank of Albania that needs to be respected. If the law has weaknesses that do not guarantee the right supervision or transparency, it can be regulated after a given amount of time. Forcing these systems or improving the law is always a good idea. This is our recommendation. But the principle matter here is that the center of the law for the Bank of Albania has the idea that the Bank is independent and this independence should be preserved with any possible law amend”, the IMF representative added.

Higher representatives of the majority, even the most critical to the governor, have often declared that they will respect the independence of the Central Bank, and that every intervention would be done only through the law.

Top Channel