By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, September 24 -- The UN's lax approach to financial conflicts of interest and corporate domination were both on display Monday behind high security in the UN's North Lawn building.
There was also double-dipping, in which the Suntech solar panel firm was praised both at Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Sustainable Energy for All event Monday, after receiving praise for the same project Sunday across time at the Clinton Global Initiative, in front of Ban Ki-moon.
The UN's September 24 press release announced the continuation as chairman of Chad Holliday of Bank of America, which is among the largest funders of moutaintop removal coal mining: hardly sustainable.
The UN press release continued that "At today’s event, significant new commitments to action in support of achieving Sustainable Energy for All were also announced. These include:
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd., the world's largest producer of solar panels, will donate up to 300 kilowatts of solar panels to the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, to help the hospital reduce its dependence on expensive diesel generators and improve access to electricity."
Back in February 2011, Suntech announced it had an $80 million contract for solar panels for UN Peacekeeping missions. But then-Peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy told Inner City Press he'd never heard of it, and Suntech was not then listed in the UN's Vendor database.
No wonder: it is a conflict of interest to be on the UN's advisory board on a topic, as the CEO of Suntech is, and to be selling it a product, while not even being listed.
In terms of following up on the UN Peacekeeping contract, Le Roy's successor Herve Ladsous, also French, refuses to answer any Inner Cithy Press questions, including on helping recruit militia in the Congo, after being exposed proposing that the UN use drones. Sources in the UN's C-34 Committee say the French firm Thales is already ready. And so it goes at the UN.
