In the UN, Resistance to Financial Disclosure Is Pervasive, from Two Top Peacekeepers through UNICEF to UNDP

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1findisclosed012908.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 29 -- Resisting a call for financial disclosure by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the UN officials who have not made public even their decision to maintain financial confidentiality include the head of the UN Population Fund, Thoraya Obaid, Assistant Secretaries General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet and Dmitry Titov, whose title includes "the rule of law," two ASGs in the UN Development Program and three in UNICEF, the UN's honorary USG on poverty issues, Jeffrey Sachs and the UN's own Controller, Warren Sach.

The top 190 UN officials were asked by Ban to voluntarily disclose some of their finances, in order to give conflict of interest assurances to the general public as well as member states. In response to Inner City Press' questions on Tuesday, the UN spokesperson stated that of these 190 officials, 92 have agreed to participate, by including their names on the Secretary-General's financial disclosure web site. Ninety-two of 190 is less than half, and as Inner City Press pointed out, more than half of the 92 names on the site do not have live links to any disclosure forms. Of those with live links, at least sixteen have written on their forms that they "choose to maintain confidentiality." Inner City Press asked, are you counting these as participating in disclosure? The answer was yes, click here for the transcript.

This means that nearly 100 senior UN officials, or half of those to whom Ban directed his request, have not even consented to make public their decision to maintain confidentiality. While it should be easy to determine who these reticent UN officials are, the UN does not make it easy to determine to whom it has given Under Secretary General and Assistant Secretary General status. The spokesperson on Tuesday said that the "audience of this was 105 Assistant Secretaries-General and 85 Under-Secretaries-General, and 92 have elected to" participate. But the UN Protocol and Liaison Service's online "USG / ASG List" identifies only 76 USGs (29 in New York and 47 "away from headquarters") and only 94 ASGs (36 in New York and 58 away from HQ). That is, there are nine unlisted USGs, and 11 unlisted ASGs.

Even limiting the analysis to those senior officials listed by the UN's protocol service, following the UN spokesperson's public explanation on Tuesday, over 90 of these senior officials did not consent to disclose their decision to maintain confidentiality. Limiting ourselves for now to the non-reporters based in New York -- on the theory that it has taken longer to get the message out to the field -- those USGs based in New York who have by Spokesperson Okabe's logic not even consented to disclose their decision to maintain confidentiality include:
Thoraya Obaid, the USG head of the UN Population Fund; Jeffrey Sachs, USG advisor on Millennium Development Goals; Cheick Sidi Diarra, who holds two separate USG titles; Susan McLurg, the new head of ACABQ; Joseph Verner Reed, special adviser USG; Kingston Rhodes, USG chairman of the International Civil Service Commission; Wolfgang Stoeckl, USG vice-chairman of the International Civil Service Commission; Ibrahim Gambari, USG envoy for Iraq and Myanmar, currently in India.

UN Assistant Secretaries General based in New York who have by Spokesperson Okabe's logic not even consented to disclose their decision to maintain confidentiality include: Omar Abdi, ASG deputy at UNICEF; Catherine Bragg, ASG for humanitarian affairs; Choi Soon-hong, ASG for technology; Katherine Cravero-Kristoffersson, ASG at UNDP (who past deadline UNDP claims has filed, but is still not on the list); Francis Deng, ASG on genocide; Sylvia Fuhrman, ASG at UN International School; Dieter Goethel, ASG on Staff Management Committee; Rebeca Grynspan, ASG at UNDP for Latin America; Saad Houry, ASG at UNICEF; Hilde Johnson, another ASG at UNICEF; Kwame S. Jomo, ASG at DESA; Angela Kane, ASG for Political Affairs; Purnima Mane, ASG deputy at UNFPA; Haile Kenkerios, ASG for political affairs; Dmitry Titov, ASG for Peacekeeping and rule of law; Warren Sach, ASG Controller (another who did not respond to a request for explanation); and Edmond Mulet, ASG deputy for peacekeeping, who wrote to Inner City Press on Wednesday that "I am not certain what you are referring to, since I made my financial report long time ago. I am now traveling and unable to answer your queries but I will ask my colleagues in NY to follow-up with you." The on-the-road response was appreciated, but no follow-up was received.

Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesperson Marie Okabe on Tuesday for Ban's reaction to this pervasive non-filing. Ms. Okabe read out a note that "available on that website that we mentioned [earlier] is the current list of those UN officials who have elected to provide a public summary of their disclosure." Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1findisclosed012908.html

While UN Discloses Deputy's Rent, Others Officials Thumb Noses or Remain Vague on Assets, Living Through the Spousal Loophole

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1findisclosed012808.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 28 -- The Deputy Secretary General of the UN rents property to the Tanzania Cigarette Company, according to new financial disclosure forms, partially made public at the request of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Click here for DSG Asha Rose Migiro's form. While Ban asked all of the UN's top executives to list, without dollar values, their assets over $10,000, several executives have declined. The executive director of the UN Office of Project Services, Jan Mattson, checked his form "I have chosen to maintain... confidentiality." Iqbal Riza, previously Kofi Annan's chief of staff and still a "Special Advisor" to Ban, at the Under Secretary General (USG) level, also chose to maintain confidentiality.

On January 24, Ban's deputy spokesperson Marie Okabe announced that Ban "encouraged his senior officials -- at the grade of Under-Secretary-General [USG] and Assistant Secretary-General [ASG] -- to follow his lead and make public, on a voluntary basis, their confidential financial disclosure or declaration of interest statement." Apparently, Messrs. Riza and Mattson do not agree. The high officials of Mr. Mattson's previous employer, the UN Development Program, have their names listed -- Dervis, Merkert, Yuge, Jenks et al. -- but no live links to any disclosures, despite requests by Inner City Press and other for such information dating to May 2007. While the same is true for the head of UN peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno, whose deputy Edmond Mulet is not even listed, the UN's force commanders of peacekeeping missions in Liberia, Lebanon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, did provide links to forms -- but all of them chose not to disclose.

One wonders why not, given how vague many of the disclosures made actually are. Some officials, while stating that they were disclosing, chose not to include the asset section, including the envoy for Western Sahara Peter van Walsum (who also wrote, "no outside activities," which seems strange) and Ban's climate change envoy, and now South Korean prime minister-designate, Han Seung-soo. The head of the UN's office in Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, wrote under Assets only the words, "Bank Savings Accounts," and not even the name of the institution holding the funds. This purported disclosure seem inconsistent with Ms. Okabe's explanation of Ban's request for disclosure, as demonstrating to" both the general public and the Member States" that "UN staff members will not be influenced by any consideration associated with his/her private interests." How can the public be assured if so little is disclosed in most cases about the specifics of these private interests? A decision was made not to disclose anything about spousal assets, even if that is a way the UN official receives benefits. We will have more on this, and on officials who are not yet even listed, such as Joseph Verner Reed, Terje Roed-Larsen and the aforementioned deputy of peacekeeping, just as three examples.

For now, given the lack of specificity about UN officials financial assets and connections, most of what can be gleaned from reviewing those disclosures made available involves real estate. Ban Ki-moon owns an apartment and residential lot in Seoul, and non-residential property in Kyonggi Province, South Korea. His chief of staff Vijay Nambiar owns an apartment in Delhi, and lists two outside affiliations, as an honorary member and honorary fellow. Deputy chief of staff Kim Won-soo owns a house and land in Korea, and lists with welcome additional specificity mutual fund holdings in Chase, Wells Fargo and Kookmin banks, and loans with Shihan Bank and KEB, which HSBC is trying to buy from the U.S. hedge fund Lone Star. Acting chief of the Department of Field Support Jane Holl Lute lists mutual funds with Fidelity and two houses somewhere in the USA with her spouse, the Bush administrations war czar for Iraq and Afghanistan, General Richard Lute, with whom she also hold three loans from JP Morgan Chase.

Capital Master Plan chief Michael Adlerstein sold a house in "Chatham USA," but still owns land there. Two USG's own between them eight residences. Investigator Inga-Britt Ahlenius lists three houses in Sweden. Department of Management chief Alicia Barcena, who has repeatedly to Inner City Press spoken about the UN's yet-to-be-born freedom of information act, lists an apartment and house in Chile, and two apartments and a house in Mexico, as well as a mortgage with Banco de Chile. ASG Robert Orr has his mortgage with Citigroup, and mutual funds with Vanguard. World Food Program chief Josette Sheeran Shiner has her mutual funds with Wachovia. UN Pension Fund director Bernard Cocheme has an apartment in Paris, and wrote in by hand a savings account and even a garage. Peacebuilding's Carolyn McAskey lists a house and three acres with her partner, in Canada, a condo in New York and a mortgage from the UN Federal Credit Union.

Regarding humanitarian USG John Holmes, even less is clear, as the link to his form does not work. The same might be said of this system, from which a number of appointees just opt out, and others delete or don't fill in the asset disclosure. Again, the spousal loophole is one that, on reflection, does or will not make sense. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1findisclosed012808.html

Royal Bank of Canada Conceals Fair Lending and Layoff Response to Challenge to Alabama National Merger Application to the Federal Reserve

Byline: Matthew R. Lee of Inner City Press
www.innercitypress.com/cra1rbc012308.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 24 -- Royal Bank of Canada is seeking to conceal information about not only its merger plans but also its purported fair lending plans, in a response to the U.S. Federal Reserve Board a heavily redacted copy of which is now online. At the end of 2007, Fair Finance Watch challenged RBC's application to acquire Alabama National BanCorporation, based on racial disparities in RBC's lending and announcements of deal-related layoffs before any regulatory approval had been obtained. RBC denied the charges, through a spokesperson. Then in a filing with the Federal Reserve which RBC was required to send to Fair Finance Watch, RBC blacked-out almost all of its response on the layoffs and fair lending issues, for those pages click here. Whether the Federal Reserve will, as would seem to be required by the Freedom of Information Act, release the withheld information remains to be seen.

According to the most recent data Royal Bank of Canada has filed as required by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, RBC in 2006 disproportionately excluded and denied the applications of African Americans and Latinos. In the Charlotte, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), RBC Centura denied the mortgage refinance applications of African Americans 4.44 times more frequently than those of whites. In the Atlanta, Georgia MSA in 2006, for conventional home purchase loans, RBC Centura denied the applications of Latinos 2.9 times more frequently than those of whites. Also in the Atlanta MSA in 2006, RBC Centura denied the home improvement mortgage applications of African Americans 4.2 times more frequently than those of whites, while also declaring "withdrawn" fully 38% of home improvement applications from African Americans. Fair Finance Watch has requested a public hearing on this.

While demonstrably excluding people of color from its offers of normally-priced, prime credit, RBC and RBC Centura have continued funding and enabling predatory / fringe financiers such as high-cost pawnshops. Fair Finance Watch submitted evidence to the Federal Reserve of RBC loans to E Z Cash Pawn in Clayton County, Georgia and Pawn Outlet of Skyland, Inc., of Skyland, North Carolina. Based on that showing, the Federal Reserve Board on January 11 asked for description of RBC's "business relationships with any unaffiliated alternative financial services provides."

In response, RBC admitted that it "maintains relationships with some clients who are alternative service providers. These clients include check cashing business and pawn shops." The Federal Reserve also asked, based on the challenge filed by Fair Finance Watch, about a report of deal-related layoffs, and about RBC's "consumer compliance and fair lending policies and procedures." In its response, RBC blacks out more than half the page, including an entire paragraph purportedly about fair lending. What is RBC so embarrassed about? That remains to be seen.

Fair Finance Watch's filing with the Federal Reserve concluded, "RBC's proposals, including for RBTT Financial Group in Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, should be subject to enhanced regulatory scrutiny and public hearings and, on the current record, should not be approved." RBC responded that its RBTT proposal does not need Federal Reserve approval. Fair Finance Watch questions, but shouldn't it?

And see, www.innercitypress.com/cra1rbc012308.html

UN Lets Gucci Use Global Lawn to Advertise a Luxury Store Opening, While Madonna and Other Celebs Are to Wait in Heated Tents

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1gucci012508.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 25 -- On the North Lawn of the UN's campus, facing the East River, metal frame buildings have this week been going up. Some thought this was the beginning of construction of the temporary General Assembly hall for use during the Capital Master Plan renovation. But inquiry found that these structures are even more transitory, meant for a one-night concert and fundraising on February 6, which is promoted by, and promotes, Gucci. This seeming strange, Inner City Press asked at Friday's noon briefing who approved this use of the UN, if the UN was charging any money for the use of the lawn, particularly given Gucci's advertising-like statement that "the event will celebrate the opening of Gucci's New York 5th Avenue Flagship store in February 2008." Click here for the press release, which also notes the involvement of a slew of celebrities including Madonna. (One wag at the noon briefing blurted out, "child trafficking." Other, playing off the name of Skanska, the UN's Capital Master Plan contractor, muttered "Skank-ska.")

UN spokesperson Marie Okabe said she would look into it, and later replied by email that "the UN decides who may use the lawn or other facilities. The sponsor is asked to pay the UN upfront prior to the event for all cost incurred (Security, Plant & Engineering, Custodial, Event Coordination, Lawn Repair, etc.) In this instance there is a Memorandum of Understanding between the sponsor Gucci and the UN."

The MOU was not provided, and it was said that it is the UN's Office of Legal Affairs which checks on which companies can use UN premises and, presumably, the appropriateness of their public statements about the use, and whether it is in connection with or to celebrate a commercial venture like the opening of a retail store. Ms. Okabe said that any further questions should be directed to the United States Fund for UNICEF's Director of Public Relations, Marissa Buckanoff. Inner City Press immediately telephoned Ms. Buckanoff and left a detailed message, on deadline, seeking comment on the appropriateness of Gucci deeming the event on the UN's North Lawn as celebrating its opening of a store. As of deadline, no response was received. Nor has it yet been confirmed how much each ticket would cost.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1gucci012508.html

UN's Liberia Mission Pays Eight Dollars a Day, Is Disappointed by Complaints to Inner City Press: Exclusive

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unmil2staff012508.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 25 -- The UN Mission in Liberia pays workers eight dollars a day, then outsources the jobs to non-Liberian companies when faced with complaints, according to the UNMIL National Staff Association. In a letter sent to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on January 21, the Staff Association asks for action on what it contends is a pattern of racist hiring, corrupt outsourcing, retaliation against whistleblowers and, in their words, "neo-colonialism." In the Fall of 2007, representatives of the National Staff Association of UNMIL as well as the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) came to New York and met with officials of the UN's Department of Field Support, headed by Jane Holl Lute. In interviews at the time with Inner City Press, they described the wages as low as $8 a day, and the threat of outsourcing of their jobs if they complained. Following their meetings with DFS, they emerged with a signed document, that recited their concern that "salaries are too low" and committed UN management to address the issue. Inner City Press sought comment on, and published, a letter from UNMIL staff alleging discrimination.

This week, Inner City Press received a copy of the January 21 follow-up letter to Ban Ki-moon, which complains that since the September meeting and seeming agreement, UNMIL "continues to hire independent contractors, and pay them less ($8/per day) in total disregard to UN decision of September 2007 that ICs be paid national staff salaries whilst performing the same job functions."

At the January 23 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Marie Okabe for a response to the letter. Her office responded by email and by statement placed in the transcript that UNMIL's "practices have been guided by a strict adherence to the Secretary-General's policies and the General Assembly's directive requiring, among other things, that Independent Contractors (or ICs) should only be employed for a maximum of 6 months - and in exceptional cases for a maximum of 9 months. All ICs have willingly signed contract documents that clearly state the specific job, the specific duration and the specific pay." The statement does not deny that the pay is $8 a day.

The following day, UNMIL in Liberia rushed out a press release, saying that "the Mission is deeply disappointed that just within a week of the assumption of duty by a new Special Representative of the Secretary-General and without any attempt to discuss with her any grievances NASA may have, the author(s) of this letter chose to write directly to the Secretary-General in New York and then distribute it to some section of the media."

Since out of respect Inner City Press was continuing asking about the letter prior to reporting about it, some correspondents in New York were mystified by UNMIL's defensive press release. One asked Ms. Okabe on Friday, what were the underlying complaints? Ms. Okabe did not say. The time, it seemed clear, had arrived to make the letter public, in part to explain UNMIL's strange press release. Is it UNMIL's and DFS's position that their employees should not seek redress of grievance from the Secretary-General or from the press? Will the policies the new SRSG, Denmark's former Ambassador to the UN Ellen Margrethe Loj, be any different?

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unmil2staff012508.html

In Eritrea, UN Mission Is Running Out of Fuel, While Council Mulls Six More Months of Staying

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/unmee1fuel012508.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 25 -- UN peacekeepers in Eritrea have been without any fuel deliveries since December 1. Friday in front of the Security Council chamber, UN envoy Azouz Ennifar told reporters that unless the situation changes, a decision to leave the country would have to be made in February. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has suggested to the Council that the UNMEE mission should only be extended for a month. The goal of this short extension would be to send Eritrea a message. But what message? Others on the Council objected, saying that this was just what Eritrea wanted. These members suggested the standard six-month extension, combined with some other as-yet-undecided upon messaging. Inner City Press asked Mr. Ennifar if he thought that the UN's perceived acquiescence in Ethiopia's foray into Somalia has led Eritrea to be even more suspicious of all things UN. "I don't think I want to answer that question," Ennifar said. Video here, from Minute 4:06.

It is often said that the UN only operates with the consent of host governments. UNMEE is right at the limit. Already, Eritrea has specified nationalities of peacekeepers it will not accept, and does not allow night flights. Both are conditions that, when raised by Sudan, are widely condemned in the media and, for example, by the UN's incoming Messenger of Peace. But this has been going on in Eritrea for some time. In part it is because supposedly binding decisions about land and demarcation have not been implemented. Inner City Press asked Ennifar for the UN's or the mission's position on so-called virtual demarcation. "I don't think the UN or the mission has to have a position," Ennifar said. Maybe that's the problem.

What other diplomatic channels are being tried, to solve these problems, Inner City Press asked. Ennifar answered rhetorically, "What more can we do than call on the Security Council itself?" But how is that working? The Council is now considering the six or one month extension of the mandate. The underlying problems, it seems, are never on the table. And so it goes.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unmee1fuel012508.html

Senate Report on UN Development Program Ignored and Scorned by UNDP's Board

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/sen2usundp012408.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 24 -- "The U.S. Freedom of Information Act does not govern this organization," Switzerland's Ambassador to the UN, Peter Maurer, told Inner City Press on Thursday. He spoke outside the UN Development Program's Executive Board meeting, which had on its agenda a UNDP proposal to prohibit Board members from making photocopies of audits of the spending of the money they contribute. "There are different levels of sensitivity," Amb. Maurer said, "about what kind of information should be available to what kind of public. To believe that this organization is going to adopt U.S. procedures is probably illusionary."

Meanwhile before the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations a hearing was being held on the PSI's report on UNDP's since-suspended programs in North Korea. (Click here for Inner City Press' Wednesday night story on the report.) At the UN's Thursday noon briefing, Inner City Press asked spokeswoman Marie Okabe for the UN's response. She answered that UNDP is investigating itself, and so the UN will for now have no comment: "there is a probe under way and I think, until we hear from Mr. Miklos Nemeth, that's set to finish its work in March, I think we have nothing to say beyond that."

A Security Council diplomat who insisted on being identified this way told Inner City Press, when asked about the UNDP report, that "we are not accountable to the U.S. Senate."

Inner City Press asked one of the UNDP Board's vice presidents, the only one at the Ambassadorial level, Slovakia's Peter Burian, if he thought the Senate's report or hearing would be discussed during the meeting. "I don't think so," Amb. Burian said. "It's the report of one country, of course a huge country. I had a briefing today with people from UNDP, they are quite seriously monitoring the hearing in Washington."

But at the hearing, UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis was not present. Nor was he at the Board meeting in New York; he left his Associate Administrator Ad Melkert to preside. Melkert did not mention the Senate report or hearing, rather delivering a speech that was little more than the stringing together of buzzwords. In a sample sentence, Melkert said UNDP is "creating an on-line platform that integrates development, management, and coordination results planning, monitoring and evaluation, integrated to enterprise risk management and closely linked to individual work planning and performance management." Say what?

Swiss Ambassador Maurer said the Senate report could not be discussed because there were so many other things on the UNDP meeting agenda. Another topic not included, on the agenda or in UNDP's strategic plan, was human rights. Because of the omission, Sweden recently cut $10 million from it funding of UNDP. Inner City Press asked Amb. Maurer for his view, and he answered that Switzerland has "increased its funding to UNFPA, which answers in another way." But this indirect communication may not be getting through. More than a week after Inner City Press requested in writing from UNDP a response to Sweden's funding cut for the omission of human rights, UNDP's spokeswoman Christina Lonigro on Thursday responded that, "On Sweden's contributions to UNDP, as one of UNDP's largest donors, we are grateful the Swedish government remains committed to development issues. On Algeria and Corimec, Mr. Dervis spoke at length on both during his press conference and we have nothing to add." But we will have more to add. Despite UNDP's attempts at retaliation, and the UN Secretariat's inaction, whistle-blowing continues, and grows stronger -- watch this site.

Footnotes / media watch: That UNDP, which exhibits irregularities in countries ranging from Uganda to Somalia to Georgia and Myanmar gets over by this focus on North Korea is made clear by dueling accounts of Thursday's Senate hearing, one attacking the U.S. Mission's Mark D. Wallace (who is said near to leaving the Mission), the other emphasizing that Nick Burns may have called off the attack dogs. UNDP's problems go well beyond the shifting interests of U.S. foreign policy.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/sen2usundp012408.html

On New Iran Sanctions, Annex Withheld from Non-Permanent Ten, China and the West Said to Disagree on Travel Bans and Export Credits

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/iran2unsc012408.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 24 -- A new proposed sanctions resolution directed at Iran will be unveiled Friday to the UN Security Council's ten elected members, at the UK Mission to the UN on 47th Street. On Thursday a Security Council diplomat who insisted on being identified this way told Inner City Press that the proposal, which he insisted was fully agreed to by all five permanent Council members plus Germany while meeting in Berlin, is new in that it includes travel ban on select Iranians. But China's Ambassador Wang had told reporters that the new resolution will involve only "vigilance" on the travel patterns of these individuals. Whether there is in fact agreement among all of the Permanent Five is a matter of skepticism. That the list of individuals to be impacted is being withheld, even from ten countries asked to approve the sanctions, does not bode well.

The Council diplomat was asked Thursday why new sanctions were being prepared. "Because they work," he said, pointing to Iran's renewed efforts to address outstanding issues with the International Atomic Energy Agency. "Sanctions have worked on the outstanding issues," he said, "but not yet on enrichment." Of Iran he said, still insisting on anonymity, that "they have lied in the past" and "they are buying stuff not needed for civilian nuclear" power. He predicted that the toughest "sells" on the Council will be Libya, South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam. South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo recently said that his country wants to be consulted early in the drafting process. Libya's Ambassador, in assuming the presidency of the Security Council for this month, said that as a country which had suffered under sanctions, he would have difficulty voting to impose them on others.

Update: A meeting on the proposed Iran sanctions resolution, which had been scheduled for Friday at 4 p.m. at the UK mission to distribute the "elements" agreed to by the Permanent Five member and Germany to the non-permanent ten was cancelled, and re-scheduled for Monday at 11:30. Now that is being cancelled, for more Gaza blockade statement consultations. The elements were distributed, including to journalists -- but the "annexes" listing the individuals and companies to whom the sanctions and travel bans would apply were not distributed. Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff about this, but he did not reply. Video here. A Permanent Five staff confirmed that the annexed exist, and that they had not share shared with the ten other Council members. The strategy seems to be to allow their input, and to get their agreement, only on the principles of punishment, not on the identities of those to be punished. How democratic....

And see, www.innercitypress.com/iran2unsc012408.html

Senate Report Confirms North Korea Errors of UNDP While Letting Wider UN, Kemal Dervis and U.S. Allies Off the Hook

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/sen1usundp012308.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 23 -- While the UN Development Program operated in North Korea, government officials monitored UNDP's communications and searched its employees' houses, according to a Senate report released Wednesday night on the eve of testimony by UNDP and other United Nations officials.

By focusing solely on North Korea, and criticizing UNDP but not the breakdown in oversight by the wider UN system, the Report and hearing are seen as representing a missed opportunity to bring about meaningful reform. For example, while the report focuses on a past UNDP payment to a vendor asserted by the U.S. State Department to be involved in Kim Jong-Il's weapons programs, Zang Lok Trading Company, it fails to mention that more recently, UNDP consciously decided to contract with a company banned from business with the UN Secretariat due to bribery, Corimec, a decision that UNDP's Administrator Kemal Dervis called a "judgment call" and essentially defended.

Dervis is not scheduled to testify at the Senate hearing, only his spokesman and head of Asia programs. Indicating that this report and hearing may be too little, too late, Dervis in an one-hour speech at UNDP's Executive Board meeting this week did not feel it necessary to mention any of these issues. Click here for that story.

Likewise, even in revealing how compromised UNDP's communications out of North Korea were -- whistleblower Artjon Tony Shkurtaj had to travel to China in order to email his superiors about them -- the Report and apparently the Senate have not considered that the same monitoring by national staff occurs in, among other places reported on by Inner City Press, Sudan through the UN's mission there.

The report states that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has tried to strengthen whistleblower protections through a plan that, the report says without providing the basis, has been subject to criticism. But Ban allowed Dervis to block the UN Ethics Office's inquiry into Shkurtaj's case (after the first stage found prima facie retaliation), and Ban issued a new system in which each UN Fund and Program can make up its own Ethics Office. Since then, the UN Ethics Office's Robert Benson, who will be subject to questions, has rebuffed yet another UNDP whistleblower, Mattieu Koumoin, click here for that story.

The report says that a forensic audit is taking place, but the UN's Board of Auditors has been blocked from going to North Korea, and UNDP itself controls what documents it has brought out of the country. UNDP brags that the report credits "a proposal that would grant routine access to UNDP Executive Board members to UNDP audit reports is currently before the UNDP Executive Board," without explaining this policy's limitations. The Senate's report should become available for download through its website. [If not, Inner City Press can be contacted for a copy, obtained from Senate sources.] UNDP has put it online, along with its response which tellingly "welcomes" the report and its limited scope.

The report, co-issued by Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan and Republican Norm Coleman of Minnesota of the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, largely confirms the charges leveled over the past year at UNDP for its North Korea programs: that UNDP paid workers' salaries directly to the government in hard currency, had only limited access to sites of projects it funded and no access to its own bank accounts, and paid a vendor asserted by the U.S. State Department to be involved in Kim Jong-Il's weapons programs. The specifics about wiretapping and unannounced searches are new, as are some of the details about the flow of UNDP's funds through Banco Delta Asia, a Macao institution later frozen as a money laundering concern.

In places, the Senate report quietly lets UNDP off the hook, for example saying that North Korea used accounts affiliated with UNDP to transfer its own money to its diplomatic missions overseas. Earlier charges were that UNDP's funds were being diverted to North Korea's embassies, to buy real estate. While the report says that UNDP's "hybrid" delivery system in North Korea, in which it pretended that the government was implementing project over which UNDP claims to have retailed control, caused "confusion" about the volume of direct payments, the report does not directly confirm or deny previous estimates of the volume of payments, or even mention the issue, raised by whistleblowers, of larger South Korean funds having passed to the North through UNDP.

The report goes noticeably light on the rest of the UN, and on Ban Ki-moon. If Kofi Annan were still Secretary General, one feels sure he would be held responsible for such pervasive problems in a UN program. But in this Report, the asserted independence of UNDP is emphasized, while the specifics of UNDP's non-accountability even to its own Executive Board is not adequately analyzed. Recent it was exposed that UNDP refused to show financial documents to the UK and Belgium about a procurement snafu in a Burundi program the countries funded, then hired the Belgian official who sought to pursue the matter. Likewise UNDP relocated jobs to the previous chair of its Executive Board, Denmark. Click here for that story.

The limitation of the U.S. Senate's review to the UNDP program in North Korea, which at the time the inquiry launched was still viewed as a part of Bush's "Axis of Evil," leaves unexplored UNDP's transgressions in places like Uganda, where UNDP was involved in disarmament program that culminated in the burning of villages, and Somalia, where UNDP trained security forces which targeted civilians. That both Uganda's Museveni government and Somalia's Transitional Federal Institutions, installed by Ethiopia, are allies of the U.S. makes the need for further inquiry all the more clear. The report is, however, a start. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/sen1usundp012308.html

At UN, Experts Change UK's Nepal Draft, UN's Role Clipped, Government's View Enshrined, Council's Process Studied

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/un2nepal012208.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 22 -- The UN's resolution on Nepal, which had been scheduled to be adopted Monday, has been pushed back to Jan. 23. In closed-door meetings, China and others objected to a UK draft, saying that in the draft, the UK was trying to go beyond what Nepal was requesting from the UN. Inner City Press has obtained documentary evidence of the changes, including changes from the first draft to the final one put "in blue" on Tuesday night. Click here for the changes to the initial draft, which included dropping "urges all party to take full advantage of the expertise and willingness in UNMIN to support the peace process" and "stressing the need for co-ordination and complementarity of efforts between the mission and all the UN actors in the UN area." Here's the UK's draft Nepal resolution, Page 1 and Pages 2 & 3.

In fact, the final / "in blue" version of the resolution even drops the reference to the UN's Human Rights Office in Nepal. Also dropped is the call on the government of Nepal to recognize the capacity of UNMIN Police Advisers to advise the national police on security. While the draft called said that the Secretary-General should take into account "the views of the parties," the final version says only "the views of the government of Nepal." This is how sausage is made. The place of its making in this instance was Conference Room Six in the basement of the UN. Reporters stood out front on Monday, but only to cover a meeting of Arab Group ambassadors about Gaza. Those from the Security Council countries who negotiated and changed the Nepal draft worked in obscurity, but the changes are quite telling.

Back on January 10, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson that, "there is a report in the Indian press that these rebels in the Terai region, they say, 'Even Ban Ki-moon is aware of our demand for a separate homeland in the Terai region'... is he aware of that?" Spokesperson Michele Montas responded, "He has not received any official communications on that." But what does official communication mean? Watch this space.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2nepal012208.html

UN Juggles Jobs and Spoils, from NY to Geneva, Accountability Director Said Chosen in Back Room, from Senior Investigators to UN Pension Fund

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un2geneva012208.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 22 -- With Ban Ki-moon in Geneva to meet with staff, in New York on Tuesday the merger and elimination of the Office of the Special Advisor on Africa post was announced. Since the African Group and the Group of 77 had opposed this consolidation, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson about this post and another, the Assistant Secretary General slot of the UN Conference on Trade and Development which was given to embattled former human resources chief Jan Beagle, as part of her shift to Geneva. The spokesperson said she was not familiar with these "administrative details" and, as to the UNCTAD post, that she didn't understand what difference it made, anyway. Video here, from Minute 12:18.

Well, the budget resolution passed by the General Assembly on December 21 says, in Section 12 entitled Trade and Development, that the Assembly "takes note with serious concern of the decision of the Secretary-General to temporarily lend the post of Assistant Secretary General form this program to the UN Office at Geneva."

As so it seems time for a special Geneva edition. Inner City Press' sources noted the departure from the Palais de Nations of the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund. Just like in New York, they say, the Pension Fund is trying to create distance between itself and the Secretariat, to justify salaries for senior officials based on those paid by other pension funds, not other UN bodies. The chief of the Pension Fund's office in Geneva, Belgian D-1 Renata Joanna B. de Leers-Hubert, is said to have tailored for a specific candidate a P-5 vacancy announcement to replace Caroline Lepeu, by requiring the applicant to speak both French and English and a third language (the notice suggests Arabic). The applicant is urged to have profession certification in Employee Benefits or Pension Administration. Meanwhile a simultaneous P-5 vacancy announcement at the Pension Fund in New York, to replace Norah Fitzgerald, has none of these requirements. Click here for Inner City Press' most recent Pension Fund story, the suspended trade of Peter Goddard to the Chad peacekeeping mission.

Sometimes the tailoring and creation of jobs for particular people is even more explicit. We have today examples in Geneva and New York. In the Geneva branch of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, sources tell Inner City Press of the hiring by Inga Britt-Ahlenius of a 61-year old individual, Anders Hjertstrand. There's a history here, and on a delayed basis a response. There are formal vacancies accumulating in the OIOS, a multiplication of people with "acting" in front of their titles, spoils to be distributed to some later victors.

Ironies of UN Accountability: Director Selected in Back Room

In New York, the newly created D-2 "Director of Accountability" post has a convoluted explanation, according to Department of Management (DM) insiders. DM's Alicia Barcena, it is said, is committed to promoting her deputy Simona Petrova up to the D-2 level. [Click here for story, here for another with Ms. Petrova response.]

But there's another who wanted this post: Nancy Hurtz-Soyka, an American D-1 previously head of the Ethics Office. Ms. Hurtz-Soyka has her supporters, who are said to have lobbied the 38th floor. Presto! A new D-2 post is being created, Director of Accountability, "depending on the availability of funds." This last is to get around the inconvenience of seeking General Assembly approval for this new D-2 position. Ah, accountability...

Within the General Assembly, there was grumbling about the African Group having asked the wider Group of 77 for support in its aborted defense of the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa. What caused the subsequent change in position? There's talk of post offers directly to Ambassadors. Time will tell.

The UN preaches the rule of law, but in New York as in Geneva, to the victor go the spoils.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2geneva012208.html

Buyers of Blood Diamonds from Charles Taylor Won't Face Justice from UN's Sierra Leone Court

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un2diamonds012208.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 22 -- Charles Taylor directed slave labor to mine diamonds in Sierra Leone and kept and sold more than one thousand diamonds, his prosecutor Charles Rapp told reporters on Tuesday. Inner City Press asked, what about holding those who bought the diamonds accountable? It has been reported that throughout the 1990s, the volume of diamonds purchased from Liberia was twenty-four times that nation's known output. Just where did the purchasers think the carats were coming from?

Rapp said such prosecutions are difficult, requiring a showing of "actual knowledge and affirmative acts." He pointed to the conviction for economic but not war crimes of Guus Kouwenhoven, who was Taylor's timber-man, controlling half of the hardwood in Liberia. Rapp said that on appeal, the Dutch prosecutors can put in more evidence and will. But apparently, the Special Court for Sierra Leone will not be indicting any corporations or corporate interests. For them, impunity continues.

Rapp says he will prove that in 1998, Taylor gave an order to "take and hold" diamond fields in Sierra Leone. He said it was unimportant whether the motive to start the war was diamonds, or if their importance only because known later. He said there are documents of a transfer of 1700 diamonds to Taylor, two to three hundred of which went into buying war materiel, the rest that Taylor kept for himself. For this, he said, Taylor can be charged with pillage. It would be a "challenge," Rapp said, to "locate his resources." In fact, Taylor's legal costs are being paid.

Rapp announced that Canada had earlier in the day pledged five million dollars to the Special Court. We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2diamonds012208.html

At UN, Still No Council Statement on Gaza Blockade, Which Libyan President of the Council Calls Attempt at Genocide

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/gaza2council012208.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 22 -- No statement about the blockade of the Gaza Strip was announced by the Security Council, after more than six hours of debate. The public session ended with Israel's representative taking this month's Council president, Giadalla Ettalhi of Libya, to task for using the word "genocide." Ambassador Ettalhi's quote, available here at Minute 2:16:52, was that the Council should "protect them from attempts at genocide by the occupying authority, I'm sorry, I couldn't find anything to describe this." Afterwards, the Libyan ambassador was asked for his reaction to the Israeli's statement. I don't care what Israel says, was the response, but only what they do.

In terms of deeds, Council sources tell Inner City Press that "thirteen and a half" Council members wanted some form of statement to issue on Tuesday. The half, they say, is the United Kingdom, though some ascribe this to the absence from negotiations of UK's Permanent Representative. Then again, when he was asking on Monday morning, after a weekend of no lights or power on the Gaza Strip, UK Ambassador Sawers said the issue could wait until Wednesday and the then-scheduled general purpose debate on the Middle East. Now that session has been postponed to January 30, at which time, the Libyan Council president says, the complicated issues of Gaza can be considered.

The "one" in the one and a half is the hyper-power itself, the United States. At the close of Council business on Tuesday, U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative Alejandro Wolff spoke at length in the hallway with his Israeli counterpart. Afterwards, Amb. Wolff told Inner City Press that Permanent Representative Zalmay Khalilzad was back at the U.S. Mission, preparing for his appearance Thursday in the U.S. Senate about the UN Development Program's dealings with North Korea's Kim Jong Il.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, before he flew to Geneva on Monday, put in calls to Israel and Egypt. He also, as confirmed by his spokesperson on Tuesday, did not respond affirmatively to a meeting request from the Permanent Observer of the League of Arab States, Yahya Mahmassani. It was just a scheduling problem, the spokesperson assured. When asked why he hadn't called any Palestinian party, she said that it is Israel and Egypt which control the border crossings to Gaza.

On the use of the word genocide, there was no time to asked Council president Ettalhi if, like some commentators, he would apply the word to some of the ethically-based killings in Kenya, or to the clan-based killings in Somalia. When questioned about his comments on Israel Tuesday, Ambassador Ettalhi said his statement on genocide had been very clear. We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/gaza2council012208.html

Bunkerized in Baghdad, UN Envoy de Mistura Dismisses Hiring Patterns, UN Nepotism and Fijian Coup

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/iraq1bunker012108.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 21 -- "Baghdad is not Alcapulco," the UN's envoy to Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, told reporters on Monday. Inner City Press asked him about the UN General Assembly declining to approve in December a $180 million request to build a new UN headquarters, which delegates took to calling "the Bunker," in the Green Zone. "The so-called bunker," de Mistura replied, "I don't like the name, as you know... It may appear to be bunkerized... we will come up with a revised proposal." Among the questions raised by the General Assembly were why Iraq or the U.S. were not paying for the bunker. De Mistura made much of a new but vague Iraqi pledge to contribute. Video here, from Minute 36:34.

De Mistura was asked about his hiring of the Secretary-General's son-in-law as his deputy; one correspondent ask if this hiring, and that of the son of previous Secretary-General Kofi Annan's chief of staff Iqbal Riza, were just "coincidences." De Mistura replied that he meets many promising people, some of whom turn out to be the sons of high UN officials (who in turn select him for posts). Inner City Press asked a follow-up, if this particular hiring raised unique security concerns, on which grounds for example the UK Prince's military deployment was ultimately cancelled. "This may raise attention," de Mistura conceded, before saying that there is already attention on the UN in Iraq.

Asked about the UN's continued use of Fijian peacekeepers, after Kofi Annan said this might be reconsidered after Fiji's military coup, de Mistura answers, "This is beyond my brief. I speak for Iraq." Video here, from Minute 42:40. We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/iraq1bunker012108.html

As Scandals Multiply, UN Development Program's Oversight Board of Sleeps Through Speeches, as Jan. 24 Senate Hearing Approaches

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/undp3board012108.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 21 -- Three days before a rare U.S. Senate hearing into irregularities with the UN Development Program, the Executive Board of UNDP gathered in Conference Room 3 in the UN's basement to hear a one-hour speech from Administrator Kemal Dervis. Unlike at a January 17 press conference, where reporters' questions to Dervis ranged from UNDP's improper contracting with Corimec, a firm barred as a UN vendor due to bribery, to impermissible housing subsidies of $7000 paid by the Dutch government to its former Labor Party official Eveline Herfkens, while UNDP paid her $225,000 a year for part-time work for the Millennium Development Goals for the poor, in Monday's speech Dervis did not mention any of these problems, nor the upcoming Senate hearing. He spoke of macro-economics and climate change -- always the last refuge of an embattled Administrator, one wag opined. He did not defend the omission of human rights from UNDP's strategic plan, which caused Sweden to cut $10 million from UNDP's budget, nor the even less-noticed omission of "civic engagement."

While in the member states' speeches that followed, UNDP's late-provision of information and waiving of competitive bidding rules were raised, Dervis did not even mention these issues in his purported rebuttal or response to the speeches. Inner City Press sought, after the morning session, to ask a question of the head of UNDP's Bureau of Management, Akiko Yuge, who had sat the whole session next to Messrs. Dervis and Ad Melkert. Ms. Yuge rather than saying "no comment," as Dervis once did, rather tried to literally run from the question, up to the second floor, then to pretend to use her cell phone so as to ignore simple questions. This picture of senior official non-accountability at UNDP is one reason for the upcoming January 24 hearing in the U.S. Senate.

Despite the expose last week of UNDP's refusal to provide documents to two funders, the UK and Belgium, of a botched procurement of medical equipment in Burundi, the speech by UK Permanent Representative John Sawers did not mention this issue, but rather effusively praised UNDP. The UK Mission to the UN was asked last week to explain if they ever got the initially withheld information, but reportedly their response was to call UNDP and ask how the underlying letter got leaked to the press, rather than to explore the irregularities in procurement and information-provision, and the hiring of the Belgian mission's development counselor by UNDP's sister agency, the UN Office of Project Services. Click here for more on that story.

Just as last year there was no discussion of the UNDP Resident Representative thrown out of the Gambia for publicly disagreeing that AIDS can be cured by the laying on of hands, Monday there was no mention of major UNDP development in 2007, the expulsion of Resident Coordinator Charles Petrie from Myanmar. Petrie is said to be in France writing up his Burmese days, in preparation of a re-focus on Africa, which was another of the un-responded to requests Monday from the floor.

The first day of the UNDP Executive Board meeting ended with a reception in the UN's Delegates' Dining Room, attended by Dervis and Melkert, Controller Darshak Shah, and head of UNDP Asia, David Lockwood, who will be attending Thursday's Senate hearing, along with UN Ethics Office chief Robert Benson, and Zalmay Khalilzad and Mark D. Wallace of the U.S. Mission to the UN. We'll have more on this -- watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/undp3board012108.html

At UN, Ethics Office Rebuffs Whistleblower of UNDP's Diversion from Africa of Environmental Funds

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un2ethics011908.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 19 -- The UN's Ethics Office, after four months of review, has rebuffed yet another staff member seeking protection against retaliation. In the matter of Mathieu Koumoin, who complained of diversion of funds from Africa to European companies by the UN Development Program / Global Environment Program, UN Ethics Officer Robert Benson on January 15 declined to offer protection. Click here for Benson's "confidential" letter, provided by UN sources. Benson further limits his Office's jurisdiction, stating that while cases in funds and programs like UNDP "could" be referred to his central Ethics Office if the alleged retaliation was by senior officials of the fund or program, only those senior official could make the referral. But why would a wrongdoer consent to outside investigation?

UNDP's Administrator Kemal Dervis, who in August 2007 refused to allow Benson to review the case of a whistleblower about UNDP's suspended North Korea program, has since defended UNDP's decision to give new contractor to a vendor, Corimec, which was suspended from business with the UN Secretariat due to bribery, click here for that story,and here for its follow-up. In this light, for Benson to count on those accused to consent to his jurisdiction is laughable. As one source put it, at this rate Benson should just close down his Office and return to Canada. "Not ready for prime time," said a source, anonymous for fear of retaliation against which Benson offers no protection at all...

Back in September 2007, prior to the purported clarification of the UN's ethics systems, Benson tried to avoid dealing with Koumoin's claims, writing as supporting his non-action that Koumoin had availed himself "of all the relevant recourse mechanisms in relation to the issues that you now raise to the Ethics Office." Click here for that Inner City Press story.

On October 16, UNDP's Dervis in a rare Q&A dodged questions about Koumoin, answering opaquely about needing to "harmonize" the system while leaving UNDP independent, because it is "in the field" (as supposedly the rest of the UN is not). He did imply that there should be some appellate role for the UN Ethics Office, without spelling it out. Video here, from Minute 54:14.

At a December 3 press conference, Benson made much of a so-called safety valve in the new fragmented ethic rules in which the director of a fund or program could voluntarily refer a matter to Benson's office. Inner City Press asked Benson if in cases where an agency's head or deputy head is the alleged retaliator, he or she should refer the case to the central Ethics Office, as a form of recusal. They "could," Benson said. "Should?" Inner City Press asked again, on the theory that even an Ethics Officer stripped of much of his jurisdiction can still provide guidance. "Could," Benson repeated. And now he makes it clear -- unless the accused volunteers for outside review, there will be none.

News analysis: While the UN Ethics Office's Robert Benson is by all accounts and encounters so far both genial and polite -- a nice guy, as baseball manager Leo Durocher's phrase has it -- his public decisions and statements so date have left the problems of retaliation and impunity in the UN unsolved. The answer is not asking those he rebuffs to stay quiet, but may require an ultimatum from the laid-back Mr. Benson: confirm the powers the post had when it was accepted, or find a new Ethics Officer, a new Office, a new day.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2ethics011908.html

After Botched Procurement in Burundi, UNDP Denied Documents to UK & Belgian Board Member, Who Was Then Hired

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/undp1burundi011708.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 17 -- Using Belgian and British aid funds, the UN Development Program in mid-2007 undertook to purchase medical equipment in the Central African nation of Burundi. During the procurement process, one bidder's information was improperly given to a competitor and UNDP quietly tried to cancel the project, documents obtained by Inner City Press reveal. The Belgian Mission to the UN, and Sue Hogwood of the UK Department of International and Foreign Development both demanded explanations and evaluation reports. UNDP refused to provide these funders with the underlying documents. See UNDP letter, here.

Geert Vansintjan, then the Belgian Mission's Development Counselor, wrote to UNDP Controller Darshak Shah, conveying his government's analysis that "you can give money to UNDP, you will not get access to what they call internal documents... UNDP procedures not at all transparent... We can improve on the UNDP without falling into the U.S.-trap." In response, rather than provide the documents or clean up the procedures, it was arranged for Mr. Vansingtan to get a job with the UN, with UNDP's sister agency the UN Office of Project Services. And in late December, in preparation for a UNDP Executive Board meeting starting next week, UNDP released a draft "Accountability Framework" in which it could still withhold even from funders any documents affecting "staff, third parties or a country government" -- that is, precisely the type of documents of financial impropriety withheld from Belgium and the UK in this case.

UNDP's letter, from Country Director Antonius Broek, was also sent to Norway, apparently because the botched procurement also involved the UN's Peacebuilding Fund, PBF. Broek refers to an "anticipated increase in procurement volume from the PBF funded projects." Broek, along with the UK's Ms. Hogwood and the Special Representative of the Secretary General in Burundi, had received the complaint of the vendor, Hospital Medical Services Bujumbura, which protested that UNDP had divulged to an eliminated bidder the details of HMS' financial offer. UNDP's Richard Barathe, "Senior Advisor for Strategic Partnerships," had received a summary:

"Three million Euros was received from Belgium for the '2006 Burundi Emergency Program Open Trust Fund... The Contribution Agreement, which itself is not dated... there is another request from the Belgians for clarification focusing on the procurement irregularities."

On August 9, 2007, the Belgian Mission's Geert Vansintjan wrote to Darshak Shah regarding "Burundi UNDP Trust Fund," stating

"I did not yet get any feedback from your own office on the case mentioned above... Lessons learned: you can give money to UNDP, you will not get access to what they call internal documents... UNDP procedures not at all transparent... local ownership is gone... damage control is paramount. The most important asset of UNDP is its reputation. You should be able to project an image of taking procurement seriously. I want this reaction because I want to show my field office that they are not alone and that we can improve on the UNDP. without falling into the US-trap."

Upon receipt of this message, viewed as a threat, UNDP's Darshak Shah wrote to Krishan Batra, "please ensure that the response is sent asap. I suggest we also meet with Geert. Belgian Mission is an important supporter of UNDP."

Less than two months later, UNDP's sister agency UNOPS hired Geert Vansintjan, on a "special" and thus non-competitive basis, as "Senior Partnership Manager for the North American Office. UNOPS' executive director Jan Mattson, previously at UNDP, wrote to staff that "since mid-2003 he has represented Belgium on UNDP / UNFPA and UNICEF boards as a delegate, actively participating in the change management process, working on accountability frameworks, results-based management, strategic plans, and UN reform." The "UNDP / UNFPA board also oversees UNOPS. And that he turned around are took a job at the agency he was supposed to oversee.

News analysis: when embroiled in scandal, UNDP often emphasizes that while it may not be giving information to the press, it is accountable and transparent to the member states which give it money and sit on its Executive Board. But in this case, two countries which funded UNDP were denied access to basic records of an admittedly irregular procurement exercise. Belgium, it should be noted, is becoming the vice-chair of UNDP's Executive Board. To give a job to the Belgian mission's development counselor, who was pushing to get information that UNDP did not want to provide, is an example of how UNDP's top management manages to escape, rather than embrace, accountability.

Looking forward, there is a growing sense that just as the Secretariat promulgated a set of Post-Employment Restrictions, albeit weak, rules are needed to prohibit those who oversee or audit agencies from going to work for them for a set period time after leaving their oversight role.

Shorter term, these specific conflicts of interest, the availability of audits, the lack of oversight that led to contracting with Corimec and the $280,000 housing subsidy windfall of UNDP's head of Millennium Campaign, are all topics for the upcoming Executive Board meeting.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/undp1burundi011708.html