法庭：拉加德担任法国财长时玩忽职守
国际货币基金组织(IMF)总裁克里斯蒂娜•拉加德(Christine Lagarde)昨日被巴黎一个特别法庭认定在担任法国财政部长期间玩忽职守。
The IMF board met in Washington last night to consider the case, in which the tribunal decided not to impose any sentence or to place the verdict on Ms Lagarde’s judicial record. Michel Sapin, finance minister, said the French government continued to have “complete confidence ” in Ms Lagarde in her role at the IMF.
IMF董事会昨晚在华盛顿开会审议这一案件。上述法庭决定不对拉加德判刑，也不把这一判决结果载入她的司法档案。法国财政部长米歇尔•萨宾(Michel Sapin)表示，法国政府继续“完全信任”拉加德在IMF的工作。
The court, dedicated to judging ministers, said Ms Lagarde failed to prevent a €403m payout that Paris made to flamboyant entrepreneur Bernard Tapie in a long-running dispute with the state. The payment was later ruled to have been fraudulent. The tribunal said Ms Lagarde should have appealed the payout, awarded by an arbitration panel in 2008.
专门审理部长级官员案件的这个法庭称，拉加德未能阻止法国政府向伯纳德•塔皮(Bernard Tapie)支付一笔4.03亿欧元款项，后者是一个行为张扬的企业家，曾长期与国家闹纠纷。这笔款项后来被裁定为欺诈。法庭称，拉加德本来应该对2008年由一个仲裁小组裁定支付的这笔赔偿金提出上诉。
The conviction was an unwelcome stain on the IMF managing director’s stint at the fund. But establishment figures rallied behind her. Olivier Blanchard, former IMF chief economist, called the ruling unfair. “She is the one of the most scrupulous persons I have ever worked with, so any notion that she might have gone along with a deal she thought was legally wrong should be rejected. ‘Negligence’ is the opposite of how she works.”
这一有罪判决对拉加德在IMF的职务是一个不受欢迎的污点。但是体制内人士迅速表态支持她。IMF前首席经济学家奥利维尔•布兰查德(Olivier Blanchard)表示，这一裁决是不公平的。“她是我共事过的最严谨的人之一，所以任何认为她可能批准她认为在法律上错误的交易的说法应该被拒绝。‘玩忽职守’是她工作方式的反面。”
Ms Lagarde was reappointed to a second five-year term earlier this year and remains popular with staff and the IMF’s major shareholders, who credit her and her political skills for turning round the fund’s reputation after the removal of her predecessor, and compatriot, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
拉加德今年早些时候获得第二个五年任期的任命，并继续受到工作人员和IMF主要股东的欢迎，各方对她和她的政治技巧表示赞赏，称其为扭转她的前任、同为法国人的多米尼克•斯特劳斯-卡恩(Dominique Strauss-Kahn)离职后IMF的声誉做出了贡献。
The IMF’s board had been preparing for a possible conviction. People close to major shareholders said that in the absence of a prison term — and with continuing support from the French government — Ms Lagarde would probably be able to stay in her position.
此前IMF董事会已经在准备面对拉加德被判有罪的可能性。接近主要股东的人士表示，只要没有被判狱中服刑——而且继续得到法国政府的支持，拉加德很可能会留任。
Most of the fund’s major shareholders were eager to avoid a wrangle over leadership, particularly with the new Trump administration preparing to take over in Washington. Any leadership battle could bring questions over the representation of emerging economies at the IMF and the World Bank back to the fore and spark an unwelcome fight over control of the multilateral institutions.
IMF的多数股东都渴望避免在领导层问题上较劲，特别是在特朗普政府准备就职之际。任何领导层角力都可能再度令人关注新兴经济体在IMF和世界银行(World Bank)的代表性问题，引发围绕这两家多边机构控制权的令人不快的争执。
