Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the United Nations to Wall Street to the Inner City

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 22 -- Amid questions to the International Monetary Fund about Ukraine and Greece, Inner City Press on May 22 submittted questions about Yemen, the Balkans and this one on Mali:

“On Mali and the president's new $40 million plane and the state guarantee for a loan to provide supplies for the army, the country's information minister says clarification was provided to the Managing Director in April. Is that true and who will the IMF's Malian program proceed?”

During the briefing, IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice replied that “the IMF is concerned about the quality of recent decisions” including the purchase of the plane and the state guarantee.

Rice said Mali has been contacted, but that getting satisfactory information and reassurance will take time. It will delay the first review of Mali's arrangement with the IMF, initially planned for June.

  This is the government which France, for example, is propping up while refusing to take questions about the president's plane (and non-negotiation with the MNLA), at least at the UN. But this is the IMF position.

  Rice said there are no new major developments on Ukraine; the IMF mission is set to be in Kiev in the last week of June, first week of July.

  The impact of Russia's new $400 billion gas deal with China is being analyzed. And, Rice said, criticism has made the IMF pay more attention to inequality -- and apparently to leaders pampering themselves while their people suffer, as in Mali. Watch this site.