By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 20
-- The UN
system's top
envoy to
Afghanistan
Jan Kubis
Thursday was
asked about
the series of
audits
of the Law
& Order
Trust Fund
for
Afghanistan
published by
Inner City
Press over
the past three
months; he
said there
will be a
public
accounting.
This is more
than Inner
City Press has
received from
the UN
Development
Program, which
has sent a few
responses but
no direct
comment on the
exclusively
published
leaked audits.
On September
20, Inner City
Press asked
Kubis about
the LOTFA
scandal. Video
here, from
Minute 3:37.
Specifically,
Inner City
Press asked
about a letter
the European
Union sent to
Kubis about
the scandal,
which Inner
City Press put
online here.
Kubis said
that the EU
states are
more and more
convinced that
the necessary
steps are
being taken by
UNDP. He said
the auditing
of LOTFA is
going on, but
a midterm
review will
give rise to
general public
information.
But when?
Six days ago,
Inner City
Press asked
the UN's
Afghanistan
deputy Michael
Keating about
this. 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.
Inner
City Press
then
exclusively
published
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. This
question could
not be asked -
Kubis had a
flight to
catch.
On his way out he told Inner City Press that the electoral issue, and how the 19% budget cut to UNAMA is being (mis?) implemented, would still be issues when he comes to the UN next time. We aim to be here, and to ask. Watch this site.
