The scandal of the former director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominque Strauss-Kahn, cast a shadow on the mechanisms of action of IMF and the World Bank (WB). The scandal caused the IMF to alter contracts drawn with its employees, including the current head, Christine Lagarde, to include a clause on work ethics. That will mean all employees must adhere to certain rules of behavior to maintain. "The appearance will befit the status of an IMF employee,” this clause stresses on the intolerance of sexual harassment and improper sexual advances in general. Spokesperson for the IMF, William Murray, said the current director, Lagarde, will be the first to receive ethics training for a month. For her part, Lagarde welcomed this innovation and is undergoing training with an ethics committee, the Chairmanship of Virginia Canter, which includes also being prohibited from engaging in any partisan work that may distort the Fund's neutrality. Lagarde assembled the first press conference after getting into her position as head of IMF. She warned against the threat of rising oil prices, inflation risk upon low income for families and the lack of balance in global economic recovery. There is a gap between the emerging and low-income countries development. “We will work to improve the level of services provided by the fund and guide various economies through necessary recommendations, debt relief for developing countries and help restoring stability to its economy and improving representation of emerging countries. With growing importance in certain countries, the fund must now be adjusted to reflect the quota within the organizational structure of the new world. We will make sure to support the Middle East,” Lagarde said.
