Jet-setting global bureaucrats can join an exclusive five-star country club outside Washington without coughing up a dime — all part of lavish perks that are effectively subsidized by the US government, The Post has learned.
Staffers at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank raking in six-figure, tax-free salaries at both global bodies qualify for free memberships at the Bretton Woods Recreation Center in Maryland, according to documents obtained by The Post.
Stiff initiation fees at the IMF-owned course — which range from $12,000 to $20,000 — are automatically waived for all employees on the payroll of the two institutions, according to the documents, which are not in the public domain.
Even elite IMF directors taking home as much as $420,000 tax-free yearly are also eligible, as are Bank executives who can make up to $500,000 a year without handing over a cent to Uncle Sam.
The optics are awkward at best. The IMF lectures governments worldwide on how to manage their economies, demanding harsh austerity measures from debt-laden nations such as Greece. In July 2021, its experts told Joe Biden to junk all of Donald Trump’s first-term tariffs and end his ‘Buy American’ policies.
The World Bank, meanwhile, has a mandate to fight poverty and global warming. In October, left-wing British charity Oxfam accused it in a report, strongly contested by officials, of “losing track” of $24 billion in climate funding.
The US is the largest donor to both organizations. A 2022 report by the Congressional Research Service shows that this country contributes $117 billion to the IMF’s funding — nearly 18% of its current five-year budget.
A separate study by the CRS from this past May shows the US also provides 16% of the World Bank’s $318 billion total capital at its disposal, with $3.5 billion splashed out on administrative expenses.
https://nypost.com/2024/12/12/business/how-imf-bureaucrats-golf-at-posh-dc-area-country-club-on-us-taxpayers-dime/