Following the 2006 External Evaluation of the IEO, the IMF adopted a framework for follow-up on IEO evaluations. The main components of the follow up process are the Management Implementation Plans (MIPs) and the Periodic Monitoring Reports (PMRs). Soon after the Executive Board discussion of an IEO evaluation report, IMF Management is expected to present to the Board for its approval a forward-looking MIP laying out the actions intended in response to evaluation recommendations endorsed by the Board. The implementation status and any necessary remedial or substitute actions are then to be summarized in an annual Periodic Monitoring Report for Board consideration. From 2007–12, PMRs were prepared by the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department. As recommended by the 2013 External Evaluation of the IEO, in 2014 the IMF shifted responsibility for preparation of PMRs to the Office of Internal Audit and Inspection. The IEO historically has played an informal role by advising the Executive Board during the follow-up process.
Management Implementation Plans
No Management Implementation Plans (MIPs) were issued during FY2015. MIPs for three evaluations were pending at end-FY2015: IMF Forecasts: Process, Quality, and Country Perspectives (discussed by the Executive Board in February 2014); Recurring Issues from a Decade of Evaluation: Lessons for the IMF (discussed in June 2014); and the IMF Response to the Financial and Economic Crisis (discussed in October 2014). Subsequently, in early FY2016 Management issued MIPs for the Forecasts and Recurring Issues evaluations.
Periodic Monitoring Reports
The Executive Board supported the conclusions of the Sixth Periodic Monitoring Report (PMR) on the status of implementation plans in response to Board-endorsed IEO recommendations in August 2014. The decision followed consideration of the PMR by the Board’s Evaluation Committee.
This was the first PMR prepared by the Office of Internal Audit and Inspection under the procedure recommended by the external evaluators of the IEO and approved by the Board in February 2013. It reviewed the status of MIPs for four IEO evaluations issued during 2017–13: IMF Performance in the Run-Up to the Financial and Economic Crisis; Research at the IMF; International Reserves; and The Role of the IMF as Trusted Advisor. The PMR also provided an update on progress on relevant issues related to previous MIPs agreed since 2007.
The PMR concluded that a range of the actions envisaged in the MIPs for the four subject evaluations had either been implemented or were in progress; a few actions had been partially implemented, with no further action foreseen. The PMR noted that further steps on many of the actions that were in progress would be tracked in the next PMR; because work in these areas appeared to be largely on track, this additional follow-up would be provided at a more general level.
In considering the PMR, the Executive Board’s Evaluation Committee noted that it represented an improvement over previous reports but that more could be done to sharpen the focus on whether implementation measures proposed by Management had been effective in achieving the high-level objectives of Board-endorsed recommendations.
The PMR is available on the IEO website.