UKRAINE: UKRAINE, IMF TO CHECK LOAN FRAUD ALLEGATION.(Brief Article)

IPR Strategic Business Information Database, February, 2000

Ukraine and the IMF have agreed to an audit of the IMF's 1997 credits to Kyiv following former Premier Pavlo Lazarenko's allegation that the government misused hundreds of millions of dollars in IMF funds, AP reported on 31 January. The agreement was reached at a meeting between President Leonid Kuchma and IMF First Deputy Managing Director Stanley Fischer in Davos, Switzerland, this weekend.

Kuchma called Lazarenko's allegation a "complete absurdity," adding that it is a "provocation against Ukraine's president, its course toward economic reform, and [its] cooperation with the IMF," according to Interfax. JM Copyright (c) 1999. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty