BP is Defended by UN, "Accidents Happen, Nature of Modern Life," Global Compact

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/bp1ungc061510.html

UNITED NATIONS, June 15, updated with a UNGC correction -- As BP continues gushing oil for over 50 days into the Gulf of Mexico, at the UN on June 14, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's main adviser on corporate social responsibility defended the company.

"Big accidents happen all the time, it's the nature of modern life," said Georg Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact. Video here, from Minute 42:20.

Kell was promoting an upcoming CSR event slated for New York on June 24, featuring Ban and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Inner City Press asked about several participating and donating corporation, including a tobacco distributor and a company of mercenaries or soldiers of fortune.

Then Inner City Press asked about BP, a long time Global Compact member. Video here, from Minute 33:11.

Kell claimed that BP has not been active in the Compact for two years. "I think their current status is non communicating," he said. But even as he said it, on the Global Compact website BP was listed as fully in compliance, with its next "communication of progress" not due until June 9, 2011.

One can only imagine what "progress" BP will communicate to the UN at that time. The reality is that the UN has no substantive standards for membership in the Global Compact.

Despite receiving numerous detailed complaints, the UN Global Compact has for example kept as a member PetroChina and its investment in Darfur with the Sudanese government of Omar al Bashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court.

That Kell would try to misrepresent the status of BP with the Global Compact, and so quickly try to distance the Compact from BP before defending it, reflects that BP's image is now worse than PetroChina's.

But that Kell would then dismissively say of BP's still gushing undersea pipeline, "Big accidents happen all the time, it's the nature of modern life," shows either that Kell is not the right person to lead the UN's Global Compact, or that the UN is not what it claims to be - or both. Watch this site.

Diplomatic footnote: "It seems that Kell is more responsive to the UK than the US," opined one senior UN official, who requested anonymity due to Ban Ki-moon's anti whistleblower policies. "But where is [US Ambassador] Susan Rice on this, given Obama's new public attacks on Tony Hayward and BP?"

Update - the day after this report, the UNGC put out a correction of Kell's statement -- and didn't even send it to Inner City Press.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/bp1ungc061510.html

UN Puts Convicted Korean Businessman on Global Compact Board, Dismisses Complaints

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ungc1skgroup040809.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 8 -- As the UN Global Compact hits its tenth anniversary, questions are mounting about its complaint resolution mechanism, its seeming pro-business slant, even its board of directors. On March 11, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named as one of six new board members a South Korean businessman, Chey Tae-won of the SK Group, who was convicted of fraud in 2003.

Inner City Press on April 8 asked the director of the Global Compact, Georg Kell, why in the world of CEOs one convicted for fraud would be selected for the board of an entity ostensibly espousing integrity. Kell acknowledged the criminal conviction but said that the Compact is "not a white knight," that one can "learn from mistakes," and that Chey Tae-won's inclusion by Ban Ki-moon onto the board of the Global Compact is "very fitting." Video here, from Minute 49:47.

In 2003 Chey Tae-won, whose SK Group is involved not only in electronics but also oil refining, was sentenced to three years in prison after he was "convicted of inflating the 2001 profit of the conglomerate's trading arm, SK Global, by 1.5 trillion won ($1.25 billion)." He only served seven months in jail; his wife is the daughter of former South Korean president Roh Tae-Woo.

Chey Tae-won held a Korea Night event which Ban Ki-moon attended at the most recent World Economic Forum in Davos. Now his rehabilitation extends to being named to the UN's Global Compact board, and being called "a change agent" by its director. While noting that the the UN's Compact with business was started under previous Secretary General Kofi Annan, the current S-G Ban Ki-moon has embraced the Compact, although he has yet to apply his philosophy of mobility -- no more than five years in any one position -- to it.

At Wednesday's press conference, Inner City Press asked Kell why the Compact's annual report says nothing about the 56 complaints against member companies the Compact has acknowledged receiving. Kell replied that most complaints are "by disgruntled employees" and "we are not an arbitrage organization." Video here, from Minute 53:10.

Inner City Press asked about the complaint against the activities in Sudan of PetroChina, which the Compact has dismissed and on which Kell replied that there is no news, and against Deutsche Bank. Kell said that concerned some "investment in a Central Asian country" but "we don't know the background." Well, Deutsche Bank among other things held over $3 billion in natural gas revenues for Turkmenbashi, the dictator of Turkmenistan. No white knight, indeed. Who's next for the Global Compact board, asked one wag, Bernie Madoff? To be described as a change agent learning from mistakes?

Issues surround the UN's and Global Compact's involvement in the CEO Water Mandate arose, but will be covered in more depth in coming days, as information about the session in Istanbul continues to arrive.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ungc1skgroup040809.html

World Health Organization Criticizes UN's Acceptance of Smoking and Tobacco Firms in Global Compact

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/who1tobacco020708.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 7 -- The World Health Organization on Thursday took the wider UN system to task for allowing smoking in its buildings, for not barring all tobacco-related corporations from the UN Global Compact, and for allowing senior UN officials to accept money or rent from cigarette companies. WHO's Douglas Bettcher said that tobacco firms could not credibly be part of any corporate social responsibility initiative like the Global Compact, whose director Georg Kell previously told Inner City Press, after noting WHO's opposition, that since "tobacco is a legal product... we do not see this as an ethical issue." Video here, from Minute 37:51. Bettcher referred to an upcoming UN Task Force meeting, where he hopes that this issue and the issue of the smoking still permitted in UN Headquarters will be addressed. Inner City Press asked if it is WHO's position that that countries' Ambassadors can be made to obey UN administrative rules. Bettcher did not directly answer, but rather said that most smoking bans turn out to be popular even with smokers. Video here, from Minute 31:12. That doesn't seem true into UN headquarters.

Following its exclusive report that UN Deputy Secretary General Asha Rose Migiro receives rent income from the Tanzania Cigarette Company, Inner City Press asked Bettcher if WHO thinks this is appropriate. Perhaps being diplomatic, Bettcher answered that WHO bans its officials from receiving any income or proceeds from tobacco-related firms. Afterwards, Inner City Press asked if WHO makes any of its financial disclosure forms public, and hearing Bettcher answer "no," suggested that this take place.

WHO's report on tobacco, largely funded by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, contained a mock cigarette pack filled with magic markers. Earlier Thursday, a reporter asked WHO's Director-General Margaret Chan and she replied -- flustered, some said -- that she hoped for a world in which such packages would all be filled with pencils and the like. Inner City Press asked Bettcher and his co-briefer, Patrick Petit, if WHO opposes for example chocolate cigarettes, as making smoking attractive to children. Yes, they both said, WHO is against this. But, Inner City Press asked, what is the difference between a cigarette pack containing chocolate and one containing magic markets? Petit said, pointing at the markers, "You don't put those in your mouth." Most of the time, at least...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/who1tobacco020708.html