UNITED NATIONS, May 15 -- While there has been little press coverage of the UN's budget committee this May session, down in the UN's basement on Conference Rooms 3 and 5, things are coming to a head. On May 14, the Secretariat's use of a $250 million no-bid contracts to Lockheed Martin's PAE subsidiary in Darfur was roundly criticized. Upstairs in the briefing room, Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe said she had heard nothing it.
More generally, sources tell Inner City Press that "the Westerners" are trying to jam budget items through under unrelated agenda items, and that Brazil and others in the Group of 77 and China are preparing their own alternative program of work for the rest of the month. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he would focus on running the UN right. But of the budget committee, which funds it all, Ban's Spokesperson's Office has apparently heard nothing.
From the May 14 transcript:
Inner City Press: I wanted to ask, in the Fifth, in the Budget Committee today, Inga-Britt Ahlenius of OIOS (Office of Internal Oversight Services) read out a report about the Lockheed Martin or PA&E contract for Darfur. She was harshly critical of it. She said that $4.3 million was for construction services where no construction took place, and she specifically criticized the Secretariat’s response to her audit and said that it was published without it being checked with her. So I wanted to know, I am sure the Secretariat is aware of this OIOS... Is this money going to be recouped? Can we get a press conference by Ahlenius and an explanation by the Secretariat of why they’re rejecting her findings?
Deputy Spokesperson Okabe: We can ask her to try and come and speak to you, but, as you know, you have to take that request directly.
Inner City Press: Is the money going to be recouped? She said that she found $4.3 million paid by the UN for services never rendered.
Deputy Spokesperson Okabe: This is the first I have heard of this. So I don’t have anything beyond what you’ve heard about the... OIOS report.
Question: Maybe Angela Kane as the head of the Department of Management will be the one to respond to this.
Deputy Spokesperson: She will be coming; there is a date already set, as will Michael Adlerstein.
The UN official who pushed through the ill-fated Lockheed / PA&E no bid contract, Jane Holl Lute, is now the number two official in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. As usual at the UN, there has been no accountability at all, a theme to which we will soon be returning. Watch this site.And see, www.innercitypress.com/un5lockheed051509.html
