By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/oios1birthday101509.html
UNITED NATIONS, October 15, updated -- The UN's investigative body, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, had a standing room only 15th birthday party in a small room in the UN's basement on Thursday morning. OIOS chief Inga Britt Ahlenius, who has not held a press conference in more than a year, sat near Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, separated only by the New York representative of UN University, which sponsored and some say mishandled the event, with a UN-only panel in an overly small room.
In the audience were, among others, a bow tied representative of the U.S. Mission to the UN -- which under the new administration has removed copies of OIOS audits from its website -- a representative of the UN Staff Union, and the Capital Master Plan's Michael Adlerstein. The CMP is under fire, including by Mexico and the Rio Group, for budget chicanery. Adlerstein's name still surfaces in litigation about his past job in New Jersey.
Ban began by claiming that the Ethics Office is offering whistleblower protection. But the first high profile applicant for protection, the UN Development Program's security chief in North Korea who uncovered irregularities there, was deemed outside of the Office's protection. UNDP refused even to comply with the Ethics Office's finding it denied due process and should pay back wages. Since then, other whistleblowers have been rebuffed. So what whistleblower protection?
Ms. Ahelnius then talked up the so called transparency resolution 59/272. But her reports are generally withheld, and she refuses to answer questions from the press. Meanwhile, as simply a few examples, findings of procurement irregularities at the UN in Timor Leste and the UN's IT unit, of child pornography users in DESA and in the Department of Safety and Security, go unacted on.
Inner City Press has asked Ban's Spokesperson about these OIOS findings, and others in Myanmar and about $252 million unaudited at the UN's refugee ageny UNHCR, without any answer. So, what transparency? What oversight?
A simple sample case, in which Ban's envoy to the Congo Alan Doss was found to have in writing asked UNDP to show him "leeway" -- break to rules -- to give his daughter a job, which occurred in June 2009, is still as of October 14 "under OIOS investigation," despite Ban supposedly having expected a report on August 18. So what work is OIOS doing?
At the entrance to the event, to which Inner City Press had RSVP-ed and to which it arrived on time, a UNU representative said sorry, the room is full. Can the Press be present if and when questions are taken? He shrugged, and suggested Inner City Press go and sit in a translation booth. Once there, listening to Ms. Ahlenius and seeing inside the UN's own "state media," another UN official came in and said, you cannot stay, people are complaining. And there, on a panel ostensibly about fighting corruption, is transparency at the UN.
Update of 1 p.m. -- near the end of the event, a UNU staffer came through the cramped hallway outside the empty translation booths, where Inner City Press and others were standing trying to hear. Inner City Press asked how, having RSVP-ed, it was supposed to participate. The staffer said to go back to the front door, past a table of cookies and fruit, and try to get in. It was still standing room only, but at least entrance wasn't blocked.
The short question and answer session, which was cut off well before the listed noon ending time, involved a speech by a representative of the Joint Inspection Unit and of European OLAF, and questions from staff members in DESA, Office of Administrative Justice and and intern from Peacekeeping. This last asked what it being doing to protect peacekeepers in Somalia. Ms. Malcorra replied that it is a African Union mission, but that the Security Council is discussing it.
The intern was not convinced and went away muttering that it is a hybrid mission, and the 11 Burundian peacekeepers have recently been killed. While he may have been thinking of UNAMID in Darur as the hybrid mission, the lack of transparency about what the UN is and is not paying for in Somalia is a topic to which we will return.
Inner City Press asked Ms. Ahlenius and Ms. Kane about transparency, using two examples: $7 million overpaid in Timor Leste, and the DESA staff member who pleaded guilty to possession child pornography. Ms. Kane said that she cannot comment -- or apparently act -- because of due process. But the OIOS' own report recites that the staff member pleaded guilty. That is, his guilt is not in doubt.
Since there was no response to this at the UN event, at the day's noon briefing Inner City Press asked Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq about the case, or more generally the import of a guilty plea to the UN, whether there was any thought that this plea in Canada was coerced or involuntary. Haq would not comment; Inner City Press asked for a briefing by Ahlenius -- it's been more than a year -- and Kane on this topic. Haq said he would ask.
Inner City Press asked the OLAF representative about this agency's investigation, on behalf of the UN, into the missing hard drive of previous PTF chief Robert Appleton. No answer was given.
Asked twice about transparency, Ms. Ahlenius dodged the questions. The second time, Inner City Press asked point blank what harm if any came from the U.S. Mission in the past publishing investigative reports with the names redacted. Ahlenius merely repeated that the reports are given to member states. Afterwards another attendees said, "She didn't answer, that's disappointing." No she did not, and yes it is disappointed. To be continued.
