With Helen Clark at UNDP, Ad Melkert Is "Expected" to Leave, Dervis' Stealth Service

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/undp2clark033109.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 31 -- A game of musical chairs has begun in the UN system, starting with today's confirmation of New Zealand's former prime minister Helen Clark as the replacement for Turkey's Kemal Dervis at the top of the UN Development Program. Hours before the General Assembly meeting to cap Clark's selection, it emerged that Dervis had quietly been named a Special Adviser to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for the upcoming G-20 meeting in London.

The UN had never announced Dervis' appointment, but when Inner City Press asked about a quote from Dervis in the Turkish Press about the appointment, Ban's spokeswoman Michele Montas confirmed it. Video here, from Minute 20:26. Like the ill-fated appointment of Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler as Ban's envoy to Niger, where he and a colleague have been kidnapped, it was never announced. Inner City Press asked, are there other stealth envoys? While the answer seemed to be "no," in today's UN one never knows.

An African diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to Inner City Press Tuesday afternoon moments before the GA vote on Clark, said it was unfortunate that no expert from a developing country had been found, even to be a serious candidate for consideration by Ban Ki-moon. He added, "hopefully for the deputy post at UNDP." When Inner City Press asked if that meant current Dutch deputy Ad Melkert would be leaving, the diplomat said that is to be expected. Especially after Ban Ki-moon's still-protested ouster of Tanzanian Anna Tibaijuka from the top spot at the UN in Nairobi in favor of Achim Steiner, from now on "if the top spot goes to the developed world, the deputy should be from the developing world," he said.

While a newspaper in New Zealand put Clark's prospective pay at $500,000, by Inner City Press' calculation it is $287,000 -- the $189,000 that all Under Secretaries General make, plus a 68% "New York post adjustment" of over $98,000. There's talk of housing subsidy and “other perks,” with a reference to the former director of the UN Millennium Campaign Evelyn Herfkens, who said she couldn't live or entertain appropriately in New York on an Assistant Secretary General's salary, and so illegally took housing subsidy from the Dutch government. Exposed for violating UN rules, she left her post, only to re-surface as a consult or special envoy, still getting Daily Sustenance Allowance and other perks.

Meanwhile, UNDP still declines to state how much it pays each member of Somalia's parliament, in a purported response to precisely this question, referred to it by the UN's envoy to Somalia. Other long standing questions remain unanswered. One UNDP insider wondered if Helen Clark, whose husband has said he will not be moving to New York, will be part of the calculation of Ms. Clark's benefits. Watch this site.

Footnotes: In an "only at the UN" moment, at a reception at the Libyan mission on the eve of Clark's confirmation, excited word circulated that Clark had while prime minister criticized Israel for its (mis) use of New Zealand passports, several missions' level of support for Clark went up....

UNDP, which run democracy and voting programs, for example in Kenya, put out a press release on Tuesday saying the UN "General Assembly this morning unanimously approved Helen Clark of New Zealand as the new Administrator." Apparently UNDP jumped the gun, since the vote was held in the afternoon...

While Dervis never explained why he left UNDP -- and now resurfaces still working for the UN -- Turkish sources maintain it was “family reasons,” that his wife did not like him traveling so much. Now he has three jobs, one in Turkey, one at Brookings in Washington and, quietly, with the UN. Few ever truly leave the UN: as they say of a certain type of five cent coin, the UN musical chairs never stop.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/undp2clark033109.html

As UN Makes Play for Bailout Funds, Currency Exchange Losses to Dictators Undermine Its Pitch

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un3bailout021509.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 15 -- It seemed like a parody headline, "UN lobbies for share of bank rescue funds," like something from the satirical newspaper The Onion. To those who know the UN system better, the ham-handed attempt to latch on to a buzz word or money train was dishearteningly in character. While there is little doubt that people in the developing world will suffer from the global financial crisis, for the UN to cite this fact as a way to raise its own budget, half of which goes to salaries, without yet reforming its procurement and currency exchange and coddling of dictators, is par for the course at the UN.

The pitch for 0.7 percent of the bailout and stimulus packages, including the $787 billion approved last week by the U.S. Congress, was made by the UN Millennium Campaign. This unit, run by the UN Development Program, was in the news last year when its director, Evelyn Herfkens, was exposed as taking $280,000 from the Dutch government for luxury housing while also being paid by the UN. Herfkens' doubled-dipping was defended by the UN, until finally she left, without repaying a penny of it. This is the unit asking for more money?

Likewise not answered are questions raised by the UN's begrudging admission that it was losing at least 20% of the funds it raised from the public for Myanmar in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. First the UN denied the loss, then when Inner City Press obtained and published internal memos admitting it, the UN temporarily changed its tune, its top humanitarian official John Holmes saying that a review would be conducted. But now the UN has reverted to saying there never was a problem, without disclosing in what other countries it accepts government-dictated currency exchanges at a loss. This is how funds would be exchanged in the future?

The payments of $700 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to the likes of Citigroup, which tried to buy another jet, and Bank of America, which signed off on huge Merrill Lynch bonuses and office rehabilitations, are equally troubling, as is U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's failure to timely pay taxes, and attempt to continue to evade based on the statute of limitations.

Geithner spoke at the G-7 meeting in Rome with a confidence he lacked in Washington, and the World Bank's Bob Zoellick called the 0.7% request a vulnerability fund, which he said would be spent on such programs as "work for food." In Myanmar, that has reportedly meant using aid to induce villagers to build roads for the military. In Sri Lanka, the UN is appealing for money to partner with the government which is reportedly preparing detention centers for civilians in the Tamil Tiger-held war zones it is assaulting. These are how the funds would be used?

Until reforms are in place and transparency assured, the UN is not the right mechanism for such transfers, even for those who believe in them.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un3bailout021509.html
and, author interviewed, http://www.foxnews.com/video-search/m/21880520/un_bailout.htm

UN's Top Lawyer Declines to Answer on Subsidy, Insurance or Settlements, Liberia Crash Fallout

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un4subsidymichel032708.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- As the UN's chief lawyer Nicolas Michel purported to take questions from the press on Wednesday about the UN's Lebanon tribunal, behind the scenes he declined to answer questions not only about the housing subsidies he took from the Swiss government, but also about the UN-affiliated Cambodian genocide tribunal, his office's role in reviewing charges of UN Development Program involvement in diamond mining and smuggling in Zimbabwe, and how the UN and his office settle legal claims against the UN. While Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson said publicly that Michel is "very open about these issues," when faced with written questions from Inner City Press, Mr. Michel has said that henceforth all inquiries should go through the spokesperson's office. Wednesday at Michel's briefing, during which even though it was television Mr. Michel purposed to go off the record, click here to view, the spokesperson declined to call on Inner City Press to ask a question. Very open, indeed...

Underpinning the freeze out of the press, the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar repeated and cited Inner City Press' report that Michel's receipt of housing subsidy from the Swiss government throughout 2006 was omitted from his public financial disclosure form. Unlike Inner City Press, Al Akhbar concluded with a question in the nature of an editorial, asking why Switzerland would be paying, if not to seek some influence? Reportedly, Al Akhbar's story is viewed as damaging the credibility of Nicolas Michel, and perhaps by implication the tribunal, in Lebanon. Mr. Michel's response was not to finally disclose how much subsidy he took from the Swiss, but rather to refuse to answer any further questions and to declare his last transmission "off the record." Inner City Press is respecting but noting that request, from the UN's top lawyer.

Among the questions still lacking answers are how much Michel received in housing subsidy from the Swiss government, and for how long. Of even since-discredited Evelyn Herfkens, formerly of the UN Development Program, it is known that she received $280,000. (She is being asked to return the subsidy.) Herfkens found an apartment, across from the UN, from $7000 a month, while Michel has said he couldn't find anything in Manhattan for less than $20,000, due to size of family and, apparently, taste. But how much did he end up taking from the Swiss government, to live in suburban Westchester? At first he said he couldn't find or didn't have access to the records. Now he says he will answer no more direct questions.

Because the UN so often claims immunity, denying the jurisdiction of national courts over its actions, a lack of transparency by its chief legal official is particularly troubling. On a simple legal issue, Inner City Press asked Nicolas Michel "how are settlements paid out by UN peacekeeping missions? I asked at the noon briefing a report from Liberia [click here]. The spokesperson said that arrangements are made by each peacekeeping mission, on a case by case basis. But is OLA involved in the payment of settlements (and presumably the signing of releases)? How does immunity impact this?"

Because unhappy with the coverage of the housing subsidy he took from the Swiss, Mr. Michel refused to answer this question, even the thematic part, about immunity. Rather, Inner City Press had to await a non-thematic (but nonetheless appreciated) answer from Monrovia from an UNMIL spokesman, that

Matthew, this is what I can give you now:

Q:Was there an accident Nov 29 2007 involving UNMIL?

A: Yes

Q: Does UNMIL acknowledge its role and is it seeking to pay a settlement

A: UNMIL has acknowledged its role and accepted the outcome of an investigation by LNP and UNMIL investigators.

Q: How much was determined to be paid and from which funding would it be paid?

A: UNMIL's insurers in Monrovia (Secure Risks) are dealing with the claim, according to the laws of Liberia.

So -- UNMIL has insurance, and this will pay the victims of an UNMIL crash. At times, as will shortly become apparent, the UN does not even insure its own workers.

Q: Update on the UNMIL helicopter crash and any payments made in connection with that.

A: As has been discussed here in UNMIL press briefings, the cause of the crash was determined to be accidental. We have no details of any payment which may have been made as the helicopter and the pilots who died were working for a Ukrainian company contracted through UN HQ.

That is to say, the question cannot be answered from the field, only through Headquarters in New York. But here in New York, spokespeople say questions can only be answered from the field, and delay for days providing the most simple financial information.

To be fair to Nicolas Michel, we note two analogous things, that Mr. Michel is not the only UN official questions about whom the spokesperson leaves unanswered. Earliest this week, Inner City Press asked if new Sports and Development envoy Lemke is still an elected official in Germany. Information was promised, but none was provided. Finally, Inner City Press contacted the Germany mission to the UN, which replied

"At the moment, Mr. Lemke is a member of the government of the German federal state of Bremen. He was, however, appointed by the Secretary-General to his new post on the understanding that he will resign from his post in Bremen. He will of course tender his resignation to the Bremen parliament before he assumes his new post in Geneva, which will both happen after his visit to New York."

And, also to be fair to Nicolas Michel, two UN officials who has chosen to maintain financial disclosure confidentiality are the UN Mission in Kosovo's Joachim Rucker -- whether this lack of disclosure would weigh against rumored consideration for Department of Management is not known -- and the Department of Peacekeeping Operation's Dmitri Titov, now the "Rule of Law" chief.

Oh to be the lawyer advocating for a lawless organization...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un4subsidymichel032708.html