Ban's Lawyer Ensured Corruption Task Force Pointed Elsewhere, Spox Defends

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 30 -- The UN's unwillingness to address the obvious corruption of South South News, to which it has given awards and Ban Ki-moon photo ops via its UN Correspondents Association, and whose Ng Lap Seng bought documents from Ban's Secretariat, became even more clear on March 29 -- though not in the UN's favored media.

  Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric read out a statement that Ban's “Task Force” report on corruption had been circulated, limited to structural flaws in the Office of the President of the General Assembly.

  Inner City Press, facing eviction from the UN for seeking to cover an event by one of Ng's and South South News' fundees, UNCA, in the UN Press Briefing Room, immediately asked why Ban wasn't studying corruption in his own Secretariat. Video here.

Part of the answer, not given by Dujarric on March 29 or admitted by him on March 30 when Inner City Press asked, was that Ban's personal lawyer Miguel de Serpa Soares was on the "Task Force," on eof only three members. On March 30, Inner City Press asked Dujarric about this, UN transcript here:

Inner City Press:  I hadn't seen when you were reading out the task force report on UN PGA office.  And upon seeing it, I noticed one of the three members is also Miguel de Serpa Soares, who is… is my understanding, as well as Under-Secretary-General of Legal Affairs, also the counsel to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.  So, I wanted to know, given, even though the way it's been structured is this was only a look at the PGA's office, given… when you read the criminal complaint, there are number of references to the Secretariat.  How would you respond to those who say, as Ban Ki-moon's lawyer, Mr. Serpa Soares has a legal, ethical duty not to find anything wrong by Ban Ki-moon?  He's literally required.  It would be unethical for him to say, I have found wrongdoing with the Secretariat.