Governors of Central Banks under the watch of the International Monetary Fund, IMF have been asked to keep receipts of all spending on COVID-19 bailouts and support funds from other stakeholders.
IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, described COVID-19 era is an exceptional time that requires outstanding actions.
According to the Director, the governors of the central banks must be transparent with the funds they secured and accountable in their spending.
Georgieva made this known at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting at the on-going virtual Spring Meetings of the IMF/World Bank in Washington.
She said the organization was looking to triple its concessional financing for the poorest countries to over $18 billion.
“We have the full support of the membership to go on the offensive to raise more capacity for concessional funding from the IMF.
Our target is to triple what we do for those countries.”
Georgieva further disclosed that the IMF has responded to call by the G20 to up its financial assistance to countries hit by the pandemic.
“Over 100 countries have already approached us, and by the end of this month, half of the requests will have been approved by our Board.
Ten countries have already received emergency assistance.
“This Monday our Board granted immediate relief for debt service to the IMF to 25 countries.
We thank members who have made generous pledges to this effort and call on others to contribute.”
Georgieva said she was hopeful that a consensus built around a G20 deal to allow developing countries to suspend payments on the official bilateral debt would set the stage for more agreement to expand IMF resources to deal with the fallout from the pandemic.