International Monetary Fund managing director Rodrigo Rato is coming under fire from critics who think he is not up to the job he has held for the past 13 months. Unlucky or inept? That is the question many are asking.
"He could have taken a somewhat more prominent role. He has not been as visible as he should have been," argued Peter Canon, of Princeton University, and a fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations.
Overall, the former Spanish finance minister's leadership has not been marked by great structural or strategy changes, said antiglobalization activist Sameer Dossani, who leads the group 50 Years Is Enough. "It's more of the same. Nothing has really changed" since Rato, 56, took over the post June 7, 2004, he said.
The International Herald Tribune recently ran a front-page analysis of what some of Rato's critics -- mostly American - see as his lack of activism. "Some of the criticism is criticism because they don't like what we did, but that's fair because they don't have to like what we did," IMF spokesman Thomas Dawson told AFP.
Some US protectionists would have preferred the IMF adopt sanctions.
Still, the global economy is chugging along and Rato has not faced huge crises such as the Asian financial meltdown in 1997 which shaped the leadership of one of his predecessors, France's Michel Camdessus who led the Fund from 1987-2000.
Other critics grumble that Rato travels too much. But Dawson responded: "We are a universal institution and we need to serve all of our 184 members."
Still others say Rato lacks charisma and that he has not set out a clear vision of the IMF's role.
While Rato set up a huge strategy review plan when he took the job, the conclusions seem to be slow in coming, critics said.
Senior IMF officials, asked about the review plan, declined to comment.