By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 12 -- With the UN Security Council full of foreign minister on Monday, some expressed surprise at the stage of the Capital Master Plan reconstruction of the UN, and the cost overruns under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Things are worse than they know.
Last week, CMP Assistant Secretary General Michael Adlerstein belatedly told member states that cost overruns now are $265 million, compared to a previous disclose of less of $80 million, supposedly whittled down through something called value engineering.
But even this $265 million overrun understates the problem, as it does not include so-called "associated costs." According to the document A/66/527/Add.1, "the resources required for associated costs for the period from 2008 to 2013 are estimated to total $146,806,000."
So the actual CMP cost overrun under Ban and Adlerstein is $412 million. Recently there was a push to override local opposition and make plans to build another new UN building, tentatively called DC-5, on the playground to the south of 42nd Street, where currently children play sports, and adults soccer in the afternoon.
Now, sources tell Inner City Press, the idea of the UN building yet another building seems "absurd," with the over $400 million overrun on a mere reconstruction. Watch this site.
Footnote: Inner City Press alluded to this coming disclosure last week, even as a major wire service (mis) reported that the CMP cost overrun was "only" four percent.
Meanwhile the UN has refused to answer Inner City Press' repeated questions about who is getting paid by the UN to accompany Kofi Annan to Syria -- TV images show for example former UN official Alan Doss, who left amid a nepotism scandal in which he asked UNDP to bend or break its rules to give a job to his daughter -- and about the propriety of the return as a UN adviser of another former official, Maurice Strong, who left amid the Oil for Food scandal, and another bout of nepotism.
Mismanagement and corruption may be different things -- but lack of transparency in the use of public money fuels both of them. Watch this site.
