By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, January 4 -- After the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights announced on January 2 that 60,000 people have been killed in Syria, Inner City Press asked OHCHR and its contractor Benetech how Benetech had been selected, and how much it got paid.
The how-much we can now report, answered by OHCHR: $25,000. But how was Benetech picked?
One basis for the question was Benetech's human rights project's listed funders, including the US State Department and the National Endowment for Democracy.
With all due respect, Inner City Press has asked OHCHR if "perceived independence (including from funding by the foreign ministries of P5 countries with a strong position on Syria) played a role in the assessment and selection" of Benetech, and how exactly Benetech was selected, from among how many bidders?
Benetech itself had told Inner City Press, "Yes, there was an RFP for this project. For the specific selection mechanism, you should contact OHCHR who can provide the details."
Understanding that OHCHR's hardworking spokesperson was busy with larger if not more critical media, Inner City Press waited some hours and then published a story, which was picked up in the UK Guardian. When the next day January 3 OHCHR did respond, this Inner City Press questioning, quoted in the Guardian, was characterized as "casting aspersions."
Inner City Press replied that it's not " casting aspersions to ask questions about how the contractor was selected, and to note who the contractor's other funders are... To listen to the doubts of some Security Council members and try to get to the bottom of how the selection of contractor was made is, I think, journalism, maybe more so than just slavishly reporting what a UN agency is saying."
OHCHR has for now said "We agreed to pay 25,000 dollars for the work, and yes due procedure was followed."
But what procedure is that? Many readers have written in; hence this interim story.
Inner City Press has asked, "Is the Request for Proposals public? How many companies responded? What criteria were used?" We anticipate answers, despite being told in advance it is a waste of time, on Monday, January 7. Watch this site.
