After being deemed unfit for the top job at the International Monetary Fund by U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, Gordon Brown will now lead a new policy group for the World Economic Forum.
The WEF job is seen as a “prestigious” post within the forum, Herald Scotland reports.
Cameron said last week that Brown is not fit for IMF’s top post because the former British leader, during his administration, failed to recognize that Britain had a debt problem. He then suggested that that it may be high time to choose someone outside Europe to lead IMF.
>> Gordon Brown Not Fit for IMF Top Post, UK Prime Minister Says
Cameron’s remarks did not sit well with Lawrence Haddad, director of the Institute of Development Studies, a U.K.-based think tank.
“It would have been so good if David Cameron, when commenting on Gordon Brown’s suitability for the position of Managing Director of the IMF on the BBC, had said ‘whoever is best qualified to get the IMF job should have it, regardless of nationality,’” Haddad notes in his blog. “Instead he said he thought Gordon Brown was not the most competent and that the leadership should probably rest with the emerging nations. He is entitled to these opinions of course, but should he really be airing them in public at this time?”
Haddad suggests that each IMF member should be allowed to nominate a candidate for the IMF managing director post, though not necessarily a national of the nominating member.
“A short list should be drawn up in relation to publicly posted job and person descriptions. The short listed candidates should have the opportunity to say what they intend to do and why they are the best candidate–backed up by evidence. That presentation should be available on YouTube for all to see. Citizens of the world should then be able to pressure their member governments for their preferred candidates,” he writes in a blog.
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