August 26, 2007	Sunday	Sha’aban 12, 1428

LONDON, Aug 25: Russia’s executive director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that former French finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn lacks the skills needed to be the next IMF managing director, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

Although Strauss-Kahn is frontrunner for the job and backed by the European Union, Aleksei Mozhin described him as a “career politician” who lacked technical experience, in an interview with the London-based newspaper.

Strauss-Kahn faces competition for the job from former Czech prime minister Josef Tosovsky, who has been nominated by Russia.

Tosovsky’s nomination challenges the convention of the European Union picking the head of the IMF, while the United States chooses the president of the World Bank.

Mozhin warned that the IMF was facing a “severe crisis of legitimacy” and said developing countries must be given a stronger voice in the selection process.

“There is nothing in Mr Strauss-Kahn’s curriculum vitae which could make it clear he has the necessary technical skills to do the job,” Mozhin said.

He also described the process of selecting the managing director as “deeply flawed”.

“We believe the IMF is facing a severe crisis of legitimacy and that if you want to make the IMF relevant to the needs of developing countries, we must select the best candidate,” he added.

Mozhin described Tosovsky as “the best candidate with the most relevant experience” and said Russia had privately secured backing from other developing countries on the IMF board for his candidacy, without saying which ones.—AFP