and chief Bank of England governor Mervyn King slammed the ineffectiveness of the International Monetary Fund and demanded radical reform to the structure and organization of the lender.
Weighing in to the debate over the IMF's future King set out his vision of a more independent body monitoring economic policies in developed as well as developing countries and cajoling governments to coordinate their actions.
The IMF's "surveillance lacks focus. Its lack of day-to day independence hampers its ability to comment effectively," King complained. "We will only have ourselves to blame if we fail to live up to (the) challenge and simply allow the IMF to evolve through a series of ever more bland communique's and meaningless statements."
The future course of the Fund should follow three lines: to provide economic research, offer a forum for discussion between governments and highlight policy failings, according to the views set out by King in his speech in India.
Emerging economies, and especially India and China should have an enhanced role but discussions of specific subjects should be broken down into smaller groups of countries to prevent talks becoming bogged down, King said.
King's comments echo the long-held views of many advocates of IMF change.
"It is certainly the best official statement that I've seen in many years," said Professor Charles Wyplosz, who has served as an advisor to the fund as well as the French government.
Kings comments also received cautious support from the IMF itself, being described by a fund spokesman as "in line" with the thoughts of managing director Rodrigo de Rato.
The difficulty now will be in convincing donor countries to relinquish their hold on the institution. King said the executive board should give up its role in day to day management and focus on supervising de Rato's work. That step is likely to be some years away.