By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE) – The Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Tuesday said its confidence in the ability of Christine Lagarde as the Managing Director (MD) of the Fund.

This is contained in a Statement from the IMF and made available to InvestAdvocate in Lagos Nigeria.

“As we have said before, it would not be appropriate to comment on a case that has been and is currently before the French judiciary. However, the Executive Board has been briefed on this matter, including on the outcome of the recent hearings before the Court of Justice of the Republic in Paris, and has reaffirmed its confidence in the Managing Director’s ability to effectively carry out her duties, the IMF Board said.

This is coming on the heels of  Lagarde’s questioning last Thursday at a special Paris court over her role in the 400 million euro ($520 million) pay-off to a businessman when she was finance minister of France.

According to reports, the payment was made to Bernard Tapie, a businessman as part of a private arbitration process to settle a dispute with state-owned bank Credit Lyonnais over the botched sale of Adidas in the 1990s.

Gerry Rice, IMF’s spokesman last Thursday at a briefing in Washington said its executive board at Lagarde’s request, had already waived her diplomatic immunity to the extent necessary to enable her appear before French authorities in the case.

“The executive board has been briefed on this matter, including recently, and continues to express its confidence in the managing director’s ability to effectively carry out her duties,” Rice said.