At UN, Ahlenius Is In Denial on Congo, Goes Slow on Lockheed Martin in Darfur Inquiry

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un5oiosmonuc050808.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 8 -- The UN's embattled chief investigator Inga-Britt Ahlenius, who refused to release two audits of her Office and declined to respond to questions about them, on Thursday denied each charge against her by rote, while saying that more detailed information would be provided in informal, that is closed-door, sessions. Before the UN's budget committee, Ms. Ahlenius contested "accusations that OIOS ignored, minimized or shelved allegations of serious misconduct pertaining to weapons trading in MONUC," the UN's Mission in the Congo.

"I would like to underscore to you, as I have to the Secretary-General, that these accusations against OIOS and the Organization are completely unfounded," she said. But many on the Committee were dubious, about this denial and about Ahlenius' various plans to pull investigators out of peacekeeping missions -- even more so, after the audits Ahlenius withheld were put online by Inner City Press here and here, describing a "lack of trust in investigative outputs," politicization, nepotism and a need for a "break from the past" at OIOS.

A task that the Committee assigned to Ahlenius in December 2007, to conduct an inquiry into the no-bid $250 million contract handed to U.S.-based military contractor Lockheed Martin of infrastructure in Darfur, she had yet to complete. She said, "in response to General Assembly resolution, A/62/232, requesting the Secretary-General to entrust to OIOS to undertake a comprehensive review of the use of extraordinary measures in [UNAMID], this review... will be presented to the General Assembly in the second resumed 63rd session." The Secretariat added, in its "note on the report on the activities of OIOS," that "the Secretary-General wishes to state that in approving certain administrative measures in the setting up of [UNAMID], he acted fully within his authority and did not approve any exceptions to the application of the Financial Regulations and Rules of the United Nations." We'll see.

Footnote: in fact, exceptions are everywhere. Not only did Ms. Ahlenius refer to Management chief Alicia Barcena someone she met in Kosovo, Ms. Danielle Coolen, to be interviewed for the UN's top procurement job -- now Ms. Barcena is pushing another candidate, Paul Baudes, reporting telling the Comptroller that she had raised Baudes' "case" directly to the Secretary-General. Procurement is full of exceptions, and the Oversight Office is no longer credible. What will it take to clean it up?

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un5oiosmonuc050808.html