By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 14
-- Exposing a
series of audits of the
Law &
Order Trust
Fund for
Afghanistan over the past
11 weeks,
Inner City
Press has
received a few
responses from
the UN
Development
Program
but no direct
comment on the
exclusively
published
leaked audits.
On
Friday, Inner
City Press
asked the UN's
Afghanistan
deputy Michael
Keating about
them. Video
here, from
Minute 11:07.
Keating
said
"we need to be
more explicit
in
acknowledging...
the risks
that are
inevitably
there with a
program of
this size and
complexity
and not try to
hide those
risks."
But
as donors
threaten to
stop funding
LOTFA, a
question is
whether
disclosing the
risks would be
enough, or
whether some
of the
corruption
like double
payments and
"missing
assets" would
have to
curtailed.
Today
Inner City
Press
exclusively
publishes
three more
audits. In "Observation
19," the
auditors drily
note:
"During
the
course of our
physical
verification
of assets, we
noted that
some
of the
assets,
which were
appearing in
Statement of
Assets, were
not
physically
present."
This
diplomatic
"not
physically
present"
phrase, if
accepted,
would have a
good future on
all manner of
criminal
defense.
In
Observation
18, the
auditors state
that "during
the course of
our audit we
noted certain
instances
where purchase
orders were
not
raised in
respect of
procurement of
goods,"
including over
$300,000 for
the purchase
of Toyota
vehicles.
Observation
17
"note[s]
instances
where
evidences of
required
approvals by
Special
Procurement
Commission
were not
available with
the contracts"
and
"recommends
that the
provisions of
the
Afghanistan
Procurement
Law should be
complied"
with. Ya don't
say.
Beyond
this UN system
corruption,
there is a
more serious
debate about
the
proposed
spending on
constructing a
new electoral
roll -- would
it be
done fairly
for all groups
and how much
would it cost.
But
with this
clear example
of UN
corruption not
yet addressed,
and with
UNDP declining
to directly
address the
audits, the
questioning of
the
UN's role(s)
in Afghanistan
inevitably
takes place in
the aura of
these, shall
we say,
irregularities.
Inner
City Press had
been informed
by sources in
Afghanistan
that Keating,
after
working for
the Africa
Progress Panel
with Robert
Rubin, among
others, on its
board,
got the post
with the
support of
Tony Blair
(Blair also
works for JP
Morgan Chase
and
ostensibly for
the UN on
Palestine)
-- and
that he is now
leaving the
Afghanistan
Deputy post.
So Inner City
Press asked. Video
here, from
minute 17:22.
Keating
confirmed
that he is
leaving,
saying it is
after two
years in the
post, calling
leaving
"absolutely
normal." Watch
this site.
