WASHINGTON The IMF's executive board will Wednesday decide whether Ukraine, by misrepresenting the level of its foreign exchange reserves in 1997-98, was in breach of its obligations to the fund, AFP said.
The National Bank of Ukraine this week released the last of three reports on its foreign reserves management which it had commissioned from auditors Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the International Monetary Fund said.
The bank commissioned the report, covering the period January to September 1998, at the request of the IMF.
"The IMF's executive board is scheduled to meet on September 6 to decide whether Ukraine, by misreporting the level of its reserves in the periods covered by the Pricewaterhouse Coopers reports, breached its obligation to provide the fund with accurate information under the fund's articles of agreement or obtained disbursements under an IMF arrangement that it would not otherwise have received," the statement read.
"Once a final determination on misreporting is made, the executive board will decide what remedial actions may be appropriate," the IMF added.
The report released Friday is the third such statement of findings by Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
The first one, released in May, said National Bank of Ukraine had between September and December 1997 misrepresented the level of its foreign reserves, reporting them as higher than they in fact were. This allowed Ukraine to obtain IMF funding of 200 million dollars.
The IMF said the third report raised no significant issues beyond those already raised in the previous two reports.
On August 24, Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yushenko said his country had returned to the IMF 95 million dollars (104 million euros) gained fraudulently in 1997 and 1998.
Ukraine's authorities initially denied the findings of the Pricewaterhouse Coopers, but in September 1999 the IMF suspended its aid to Ukraine, citing the country's budget deficit.